


We're All We Need

by WildBlueSonderling



Series: We [1]
Category: Powerpuff Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child Abuse, Child Soldiers, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Family, For Science!, Friendship, Gen, General Unpleasantness Involving Children, Manipulation, Superpowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2020-07-09 05:30:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19882438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildBlueSonderling/pseuds/WildBlueSonderling
Summary: Everyone knows Professor Utonium created the Powerpuff Girls and Mojo Jojo created the Rowdyruff Boys, but neither would exist if Professor Newtronium hadn't created the world's first true superhumans.





	1. If I Could Save the World

**Author's Note:**

> Imported from FFN. If you've already read it there why not bookmark and leave a kudo? If you're new to the story, welcome! First part of a trilogy. Comments are appreciated. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Professor Joan Newtronium stared at the document in her hands as her lips slowly separated into a triumphant smile.

_'The City of Townsville Scientific Discovery Council has granted the members of the Project W research and development team permission to begin application trials on live subjects.'_

Joan read that sentence two more times for absolute clarity, then she gave the whole thing a thorough run-through. Once positive the Council hadn't included any arbitrary restrictions, she raced to find Project W's other lead scientist. "John! John!" Professor Utonium glanced up in alarm as she practically skidded to a stop before him. "We got the letter from the SDC! We're greenlit to start animal testing!"

"That's wonderful!" he exclaimed, pewter eyes sparkling. "I'll call a meeting to inform everyone."

"We can do it together!" Joan moved with a spring in her step as she told her fellow researchers to convene in what served as the conference room. Their building was small, their laboratory even smaller, and most of the equipment was secondhand, but they made do with the funding provided by their singular benefactor. It had been difficult selling the concept of Chemical W, a liquid injection that would cure degenerative neurological diseases. Their investor was an old man who suffered from onset dementia, hoping W might actually reverse his condition. The scientists worked diligently but kept getting caught up by the bureaucratic process, so being able to begin animal testing would help them make some much-needed progress.

As expected, the rest of the dev team was overjoyed by the news. John gave everyone the remainder of the day off since they'd be working nonstop once their subjects arrived. Joan came into his office, sitting on the corner of his desk while grinning from ear to ear. "I had some suppliers bookmarked when we started this collective but I've never ordered animals before," he admitted. "What kind of simians do we want?"

"Chimpanzees, of course," Joan answered. It should have been a no-brainer because the genomes of chimps and humans were 99% similar.

"There are also bonobos, gorillas, lemurs…" John looked handsome even when he frowned in contemplation. "You're sure you want chimpanzees?"

"I'm positive," Joan said. "The compound won't be nearly as effective on anything else. What's your hang-up?"

"They're expensive…" he muttered. "With our current budget we can only afford a dozen."

"Make it a baker's dozen. I'll take a pay cut."

The man knew better than to challenge such a statement. Joan always said what she meant. Her candor was a quality he quickly grew to respect after they met as college juniors, fast friends for the past thirteen years. She finished her PhD first, proudly introducing herself as Professor Newtronium during their high school reunion. Their coworkers sometimes accidentally, sometimes purposely mixed up their names since "Newtronium" and "Utonium" were phonetically similar. Neither Joan nor John let it faze them; in fact, it was a compliment. With John's expertise in biochemistry and Joan's brilliance as a genetic engineer, they had become fortunate enough to lead their own research group and earn funding for an admittedly improbable curative. Someone's life depended on their success and that was enough motivation to keep pushing forward.

Two days later a truck containing thirteen _Pan troglodytes_ specimens arrived at the lab, and they came with their own caretaker as per company policy. The female members of the collective were glad to have another woman on the team, Jane Goodwin. She encouraged the scientists to refer to the chimps by their names rather than their assigned numbers; kept their moral high, she said. She was partial to a male and a female named Mojo and Momo. They were somewhat more docile than the others, and Jane had started teaching them sign language so they could communicate a bit.

The testing commenced as seven of the chimps had their food dosed with Chemical W and the other six received a placebo. After being fed twice a day for one week, MRI scans of their brains revealed a slight increase in synaptic activity. Jane reported that she'd been able to teach Mojo and Momo several new words with relative ease, and she swore there was a greater spark of intelligence in their eyes. After a month they decided to increase the W dose but there were no noticeable results, so John suggested adding omega-3s to the chimps' diet. There was ample evidence to support the theory that the human brain evolved as it had due to the consumption of fish, which were rich in fatty acids.

Joan was dubious. "You're telling me that one of the major things separating us from monkeys is _salmon?_ "

"Salmon is a fantastic source of omega-threes," John said, already placing a bulk order for fish oil capsules. "I just have a feeling this will push us in the right direction."

Joan pursed her lips. Science wasn't about what one _hoped_ the outcome would be, it was about what one could _prove_. Wishful thinking was never responsible for advancing the human race. "What if the inclusion of another variable skews the results?"

"First we have to get some results to skew," he returned. She acquiesced, but if they somehow negatively affected their test subjects it would likely be the end of their study. Their financier's health had taken a dive and his grandson was now in charge of his estate. The man was young, entitled, and of the mindset that his grandfather shouldn't be pouring money into experimental medicine. Project W now faced the gallows and would be axed if it failed to work as promised.

Thankfully they worried for naught. Four days after introducing the new diet, Jane started her morning routine only to notice that something was different. All the chimps were quiet, not a single hoot or holler at the promise of food. Her gaze traveled the room to find them all watching her intently, patiently. When her eyes landed on Mojo, he stuck his hands through the bars of his cage and signed something that made her jaw drop before she ran from the room. "Professor Utonium! Professor Newtronium! Come here, quick!" John calmly exited his office as Joan abandoned her data review. "Professors, you have to see this!" Jane kept glancing over her shoulder to ensure they were following. "Look!"

Both scientists focused on Mojo who signed something after a moment. "What's he saying?" John wondered.

"'Good morning'," Jane relayed, beaming. She signed it back to him, then he made several gestures. "He wants to know your names. He's asking who you are!"

"I suppose you should tell him," Joan said. It was slightly unnerving to see the chimpanzee tilt his head to one side as his eyes narrowed, scrutinizing them, but he soon turned back to Jane and signed the same thing three times in a row. "What does that mean?"

"This is what I wanted to show you! When I made eye contact with Mojo, he said 'good morning Jane, breakfast soon?' Breakfast now!" Happy-sounding noises arose from several chimps while John regarded them in mild disbelief. It certainly seemed the subjects, or at least Mojo, possessed a level of awareness they hadn't before.

Joan wasn't convinced until giving one of them another scan, her expression softening. "Well I'll be…" she murmured, "Looks like your fatty acids did the trick, John."

There was a tangible increase of neural activity in the seven chimpanzees that had received the combination of fish oil and Chemical W. Their brains formed more complex pathways as Jane began teaching all of them ASL. By the time the second month of the study came to an end Mojo and Momo had learned to communicate with word boards, now capable of interacting with the entire development team. Under Jane's supervision the pair was allowed to explore the lab, asking simple questions about their environment and the scientists at work. If Joan didn't know any better it was almost like they were on the verge of developing sapient-level intelligence in non-humans.

She walked into her co-creator's office after work, the two of them staying late as usual, and sat on his desk with her arms folded. "I think it's almost ready, John. I think we have a probable cure for our benefactor."

He shook his head once. "Two months isn't enough time for side effects to present themselves."

"There _aren't_ any side effects," Joan countered. "Thanks to you, W is chemically pure."

He still didn't agree. "We need to administer the compound to the other six subjects and see if we can replicate the results we already obtained before we even think about generalizing."

She fixed her blue eyes on the man, leaning forward into his personal bubble. "John, we're seeing the same thing happening to those monkeys, right? You've seen the increase in brain activity, the formation of synapses, their ability to not only accept new information but retain it and use it to form individual knowledge bases?" She scoffed at his stoic silence. "For god's sake, Mojo helps you at your station! According to Jane he now has the intelligence level of a ten year-old child!"

"And I want to be certain that the compound won't reduce Hastings to the intelligence level of a ten year-old child," John retorted.

Joan huffed. He'd always been one to play by the rules whereas she was willing to skate around them if it meant achieving her goals. "Then let's request permission from the SDC to start clinical trials."

The man looked up sharply and she pulled back. They were the same age but John appeared older when he donned that expression, brow knitted and square jaw set in a patronizing manner. He too closely resembled her disapproving father at times like this. "We can't test Chemical W on people. It's only been _two months_ ," he said pointedly.

"Two months with nothing but positive results," Joan muttered, then she grew bold. "Did you forget that someone's life is at stake? We owe it to Hastings to cure him before he dies! If he goes, so does our funding!"

"We can find someone else to pick up the project."

"Like who?!" No answer. Joan tutted. "I'm going to request a clinical study from the SDC with or without your signature." She stood to leave.

"Wait…" She paused in the doorway as John sighed. "I really believe it's too early for human testing… but maybe we can see how W affects other animals. Rats, parrots, dogs, ones that can learn certain behaviors like the chimpanzees."

Joan nodded in agreement but inwardly rolled her eyes. Those species were too different from humans for the findings to matter. John was getting cold feet, his fear of success rearing its head. He'd never led a team before, never been in charge of a project like this. He never believed Chemical W would behave exactly how it had been designed to since failure and the acceptance thereof was also part of the scientific process. But they had done everything right. Their group of biologists, chemists, neurologists and genetic engineers had invented a compound that improved brain function. Joan didn't understand why John would mistrust the results or even be in denial of them, like he was determined to find fault with his own invention.

Well, she wasn't going to let all their hard work go to waste. If John didn't have faith in himself, her, and their team, she'd find someone who did to help make their miracle cure a reality.

* * *

Shopping for a new benefactor was as simple as knowing whose elbows to rub. Acquaintances of friends of colleagues eventually put Joan in contact with Maximilian Morbucks, a name that was not unfamiliar to her but one she never expected to see attached to a scientific field. He was in real estate and small business; sometimes those businesses turned into large companies that gave him substantial stock holdings. He was also one of the biggest contributors to the Aegis Project, some kind of computer network that would allegedly revolutionize the entire world. In the office of his personal home Joan sat with her hands clasped tightly as Maximilian flipped through the documents she had gathered, development notes and research findings and such.

Finally he closed the folder and laced his own fingers atop his zebrawood desk. "I'm highly intrigued by this compound you've developed."

"Y-you are?" Joan stammered, totally not expecting that based on his bland expression.

"Yes." The man reclined, looking down his large nose adorned with a thick orange mustache. "Miss Newtronium… it is 'Miss', right?" Joan nodded. "In the interest of full transparency, I'd like to inform you that I'm a member of a collective of sorts, one comprised of Townsville residents possessing a certain level of financial security." She nodded again, fully aware of the club for wealthy people since she had attended their events in search of funding. "The main goal of the collective is to preserve things for the future. Recently a few members became focused on preserving themselves."

Her eyes narrowed. "I don't follow."

"There are those who want to extend their natural lifespans in order to accomplish long-term goals," Maximilian explained. "With the advancements in stem cell research the ability to replace failing organs, including skin, has become a feasible practice. There are several groups attempting to figure out how to upload and download the human consciousness to machines so that there may no longer be a need for a body." Joan could only blink at such an outlandish prospect. She didn't get the T types in STEM. "Now, I understand you're one of the world's leading practitioners of human genome editing, right?"

"Yes," she answered. No point being humble when it was true.

"But the edits need to be made fairly early in life, yes? Before someone is even born?"

"That's correct." Joan sat up a little straighter. "I find that editing the genome during the zygotic stage of development results in the expression of desired traits and the suppression of undesirable ones about ninety percent of the time."

Maximilian hummed throughtfully. "So edits can't be made retroactively, to people already living?"

"Correct."

"But this compound you've developed… W can be taken by anyone at any time?"

"Yes, and as our current findings show, there are no negative effects on healthy brains. The compound was designed to restore neurological functionality, but it also seems to _enhance_ functionality if the right stimuli are applied. In the case of our simian subjects, they have become highly skilled at association and can communicate with American Sign Language or word boards or both." The man quirked an eyebrow at the latter term. "They're like tablets with an assortment of pictures and emojis on them, so the chimpanzees can express their feelings and ask for things. Some of the conversations our researchers have had have been quite… existential."

"I see." Maximilian held her gaze. "What would you like to accomplish with Chemical W?"

Joan didn't have to think twice about it. "I would like to introduce it to the medical field as a viable cure for diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia."

"I see. I already own chemical plants in several states so we can certainly create enough supply for the demand. There's just one reservation I have…" She steeled herself. "I want to know how your compound actually affects humans, not monkeys. If there's one thing I've learned from investing in so-called miracles, it's that disparities between laboratory testing and real-world applications often result in product recalls and substantial payouts. You follow?"

"Yes…" Joan sighed, "you're saying you can't support my research until clinical trials have commenced."

Maximilian blinked in surprise, then his loud laugh filled the room. "That's not what I'm saying at all, Miss Newtronium!" His professional demeanor returned. "I can expedite the time it takes you to begin human testing."

"Really? How?"

A slight smirk turned his lips. "I know someone on the SDC who will give you permission. You don't have to wait for a peer review."

"Oh." That was all Joan could think to say. The idea of evading peer reviews was… tempting. It sometimes took months for the Council to reach a conclusion, but none of the members knew Chemical W like Joan did. She had been right there with John during every step of its synthesis, knew the formula by rote. It was pure, and perfect, and she was tired of dancing on one foot while waiting for other people to make decisions regarding her life-saving invention. "How soon could we begin human testing?" Joan inquired.

"Oh, there's no 'we'," Maximilian replied. "I don't want to fund your entire collective, just you. You would personally receive unlimited backing from me." The woman stared at him through wide eyes. They were extremely blue, piercing and beautiful, a bit of a shame since the rest of her was so plain. He wondered if she looked homely or pretty without makeup.

"You want me to leave my group?" Joan clarified.

"Yes. I could have you in a new facility tomorrow. Your own lab, top-of-the-line equipment, a new team handpicked by you. This is the offer I'm laying on the table, Miss Newtronium. You can have whatever it takes to get your compound to market." He scrutinized her. "But it _must_ get there. There's no point if I don't profit, but once the money starts rolling in you'd be free to research and develop to your heart's content."

So Morbucks wasn't an altruist. Good to know. Joan proffered her hand. "I accept."

John took her resignation better than she anticipated, at least outwardly. Joan saw the hurt in his eyes, the questions. Why would she abandon everything when they'd come so far? She wished she could admit he was moving too slowly for her, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings and lose him as a friend. And she'd signed a non-disclosure agreement so she couldn't tell him about Morbucks. They were technically rivals now, racing to develop the same cure. Joan would still credit him when she won.

Maximilian personally gave her a tour of her new workplace, an underground facility descending several miles deep into the earth. It was located in Townsville's industrial shipping yard and powered by hydrokinetic energy with geothermal backup generators in compliance with the green initiatives Mayor Sarah Bellum had introduced when she took office. It almost reminded Joan of a hospital in its layout, the floors grouped together by subject. There was a computer technology division, a clinical wing and on-site medical treatment options, cafeteria, chemistry lab, various engineering workshops, and a handful of administrative offices or "overseers" as the seasoned personnel referred to them. Joan became the head of the genetic engineering division overnight, assembled a new group of underlings and assistants within a few days, and got to work.

The human test subjects provided by one of the overseers were imported from the local prison. The morality of this arrangement didn't bother Joan because they were being used for the betterment of mankind. Besides, they were criminals and no one much cared whether they received the death penalty, rotted away behind bars, or were transferred elsewhere. Working with prisoners only subjected the scientists to crass, vulgar language and obscene gestures. Joan repeated the same method she'd used for the chimpanzees by adding pure Chemical W to the subjects' food, the results immediate. The aggressive men and women became better behaved, more conscientious of their environment and how to act within it. "Was Chemical W designed to make people docile?" an assistant inquired of Joan.

"No. What you're observing as docility is a conscious choice to reform behavior. They realize there's no reason for misplaced anger. It's a waste of everyone's time and energy." Joan let the observation period run its course, focusing her attention on an epileptic woman. She had not taken epilepsy into consideration when designing Chemical W because it was typically a genetic condition, one she'd edited out of embryos for multiple clients, but the woman had become epileptic after the drunk driving incident that landed her in prison for vehicular manslaughter. MRIs showed the damage to her lobes healing with each passing day until she no longer suffered seizures.

"We should broaden the scope of the experiment," a young neurologist suggested. "I know you're mostly concerned with dementia and Alzheimer's, but what about palsy, sclerosis, dyskinesia?"

"We'll get there eventually," Joan replied. She was bold, not brash. John had a point when he said it was too early for clinical trials. As she had initially hypothesized, W affected humans differently than chimpanzees. Smaller doses were required, there was no need for fish oil, and some of the subjects had started expressing signs of hyper-intelligence.

Admittedly Joan wasn't sure how to feel about that. The chimps had grown more intelligent when presented with new information, but with these prisoners it was like specific pieces of knowledge they'd randomly been exposed to were suddenly on the forefront of their minds. A lot of them asked for books so they could further educate themselves. Some of them were granted internet access and became capable of debating topics with experts, including her own team members. It was a side effect Joan had not anticipated or if she should even label it as such. Chemical W was doing its job to improve brain health and that was what mattered.

Half a year passed until Joan spoke to John again. He called her out of the blue one Saturday morning while she was still in bed. "John," she said by way of greeting, "it's been a minute."

"It has. I figured you wanted space after you left the collective." She inwardly sighed. She was _not_ that dramatic. "I won't ask why, but know that we miss you." A pause. "There's something I need to tell you, Joan."

"So tell me."

Another long pause. "The chimps… we lost most of them."

His tone made her heart skip a nervous beat. "What do you mean you lost them?"

"They… died." There was no skirting the issue but John hated saying it with such finality. "Mojo, Momo, and Tiki are the only three left, and for a while they kept getting smarter. They tried speaking to us like humans and got frustrated that they didn't have the vocal capabilities to do so. It was honestly astounding."

"How did they die?" Joan asked.

A heavy sigh. "Brain aneurysms."

"Do you know why?" she pressed.

"A few developed arterial infections, but for most it was a spontaneous rejection of the W compound and rapid, I mean _very_ rapid, neurological degeneration."

Joan wished she wasn't hearing this right now. She placed a hand on her forehead to quell her rampant thoughts, taking several deep breaths. John was right: two months wasn't enough time for side effects to present themselves. Now the question was whether they'd occur in her human subjects. "Tell me you have a theory as to what caused the rejection. Obviously Momo, Tiki, and Mojo didn't degrade at the same rate."

"Right, but their mental faculties _are_ fading. I have the team trying to develop something to stabilize them and hopefully reverse the condition. As for theories…" Joan pictured him shrugging his broad shoulders. "The most viable explanation I've come up with is that the compound is too synthetic." That made sense; biological organisms tended to reject artificial additions to their bodies. Nature was a purist like that.

Joan suddenly had a stroke of inspiration. She would hold out hope that the minds of the prisoners wouldn't degrade, but in the meantime she could run an entirely new experiment, a pet project she'd keep secret from everyone, even Maximilian, in case it didn't conclude favorably. But if it did, if what she was thinking about doing actually worked, she'd go down in history. No, better than that, she would forge the _future_. "Thank you for telling me about the chimps, John," she said evenly.

"You're welcome. I thought you'd want to know since Momo was your favorite."

"She was."

John cleared his throat. "You could always visit her at the lab. I'm sure everyone else wouldn't mind if you stopped by."

"I might take you up on that offer." Joan made sure not to sound dismissive; she didn't want anyone catching on to her little side project. That meant making her old peers believe she'd stepped away from the field for a while and her current peers believe the study would continue as planned. What were a couple white lies for the sake of advancing the human race?

* * *

Joan needed to start from scratch, blank human slates for her experiment. She made a trip to a genealogy bank and, since she couldn't just walk out the door with genetic material, bribed someone with Maximilian's money to let her browse the inventory. She was quick about it, choosing a good variety of cells, and left with ten sets of male and female gametes. Her plan was to make babies _in vitro_ and splice Chemical W into their genomes during their stage as zygotes. It would work in theory, but in practice it was much harder to add coding to DNA than to edit things away. She had the best equipment in the world at her disposal, though, so she was confident in achieving a favorable result.

She botched the first two sets completely, frustration prompting her to abandon the project for a while as she continued the W study. There were no signs of degeneration until a year had gone by, then several of the prisoners began regressing. Amnesia occurred in a handful of them, some developed hypothalamus and pituitary issues, and only a few passed away from brain aneurysms. Maximilian wasn't happy with the outcome and neither was Joan, but she got over it quickly since her side project took precedence over everything else. Six months ago she had successfully spliced Chemical W onto the last four zygotes, hiding them within her personal private lab at the facility. The fetuses grew quickly, too fast to calculate, and now resembled four year-old children. They were responsive, reacting to external stimuli such as music and lights, and cranial sensors revealed promising neural activity.

It was time to see whether her experiment had been a success or a failure.

Joan drained the incubation tanks of synthetic amniotic fluid, holding her breath to see if her subjects could breathe without oxygen masks. Thankfully they did. The room was dark so as not to blind them when or if their eyes opened. One of the girls stirred first, her lids fluttering while she gathered her bearings. She placed her palms against the glass and took in her surroundings until her gaze landed on Joan, who inched forward. The girl's expression remained passive while they stared at one another. The first human being to be imbued with Chemical W was alive and cognizant in her lab. Joan didn't know whether to be proud or terrified of herself for creating such a lifeform. "Out," the girl said. It took a second for Joan to register the tinny sound. "Want out."

"Oh my god, you can speak." Wasn't learning to talk a significant part of childhood development? "How do you know how to speak?"

The girl merely blinked at her before asking, "Who you?"

"Joan. My name is Joan!" Oh god, this was really happening. They were _interacting_.

"Joan." The girl glanced around again. "Who me? What my name?"

And she was already trying to establish an identity! "Your name? Let's call you… Une."

"Oon." The girl managed a small smile. "My name Une. Want out."

Joan burst into a flurry of movement, soon realizing she was not equipped for handling four young children. What did they wear? What did they eat? What did they _do?_ She barely recalled her own childhood and had never been around kids, yet she was obligated to take care of them. They were like her babies… her genetically-engineered-and-accelerated babies. Joan never desired to marry or have kids, never felt that "maternal instinct" her mother and friends always told her would kick in one day. She wasn't exactly a workaholic but she placed a high value on time since there was no way of knowing when it would run out, and she sought to accomplish as much as possible until then. Like a lot of people she wanted to be remembered for something. Augmenting the human genome with Chemical W seemed like one hell of a legacy to leave behind.

For precisely one week the children remained perfectly ordinary, but by week two they began expressing unusual physical characteristics. Une's hair changed from black to navy blue as her eyes went from sepia to burgundy. The other girl named Tvaer grew extremely pale, making Joan worry she had contracted an illness despite the lab's filtration system and sterility, but then her blonde hair and blue eyes also paled, leaving her with stark white locks and grey irises. The two boys, Natt and Sai, retained their natural dark hair and skin as their brown eyes turned sienna and amber respectively. Natt also underwent a substantial growth spurt one night, putting him a whole foot taller than his siblings.

Joan couldn't keep them secret any longer. They needed more than she could personally provide, least of all an education. She called her team to her lab for an important announcement. Needless to say everyone was speechless to discover four live children there. "What have you done?" was the first question hurled at her. She weathered the verbal torrent that followed.

Once things had calmed down, Joan expressed her reasoning: Chemical W's restorative properties were only temporary and could not be applied to people with preexisting conditions. The side effects did as much damage as they repaired, even more in some instances. "But these children represent a new standard of human health," Joan explained. "The scope of gene editing is limited– it can't be performed on every fertilized cell in the world. However, I believe the majority of detrimental conditions can be erased from the genome via the application of Chemical W at the zygotic stage. It has _so_ much more potential than I realized. We can market the compound as an injection that will prevent any and all forms of illness."

"That's a bold statement…" someone muttered.

"Yes, it _is_ bold," Joan agreed, "but we've just bypassed a boundary that mankind as a whole was content to stay behind."

" _We_ didn't do anything. Those… _abominations_ are all yours, Professor."

Her lips turned down. What a horrible word to describe her flawless creations. "How dare you call them that. These children are my magnum opus. They're heralds of a future where everyone will be able to live long, happy lives in optimum health. What parent wouldn't want that for their child?" Joan took a deep breath. "What I would like to ask you all now is if you'll engage in a long-term study of these children with me. I want to observe every aspect of their development from now on."

The young neurologist shook his head. "With all due respect, Professor, you're insane. You just sprung the result of your unethical experiment on us. How the hell did you expect us to react?" He knelt before Sai, the smallest of the four. "They don't even _look_ like us. It's not just the freaky eyes, there's something _different_ about them." Sai's bushy brows furrowed in a scowl.

"The difference is they'll never get sick." Joan huffed and lifted her chin. "Anyone who isn't interested in studying my children should leave now." About a third of her team walked out the door but the neurologist wasn't among them. "Thank you for your support, Doctor Anderson."

He shrugged. "I don't get the opportunity to study superhuman brains every day."

At that, Une broke her promise to be quiet and tugged on Joan's coat. "What does 'superhuman' mean? Aren't we normal?"

Joan smiled and ruffled her curly hair. "'Normal' is different for everyone, Une. The four of you are normal in a way that seems strange to other people, but they'll understand in time. Someday everyone will be normal like you."

"But what's 'superhuman' mean, Joan?" Sai repeated. "Tell us."

"Superhuman… It means above, better, more capable than the average person." She looked at their adorable, inquisitive, upturned faces and all she saw was promise. The promise that she, Professor Joan Newtronium, was guaranteed to change the world.


	2. I See it All Needs Questioning

Joan's new research team included child development specialists, educators, psychologists, and a handful of pediatricians just in case. The children were dubbed "the Quads", short for quadruplets, by most of the scientists. Although they didn't share any genetic material save Chemical W, they were being raised together and could be considered siblings. Watching them learn and discover was fascinating to Joan. She had yet to figure out how they'd been born with the ability to speak, but in the two weeks she'd kept them secret they became even more articulate, using proper grammar and expressing their wants and needs in a more refined manner. This made it easier for the scientists to communicate with the children, but there were still many things to puzzle out such as why Tvaer had yet to talk. An exam revealed that her vocal chords, larynx, and frontal lobe functioned correctly, but she only opened her mouth to eat or laugh.

One of the chemistry stations was turned into a makeshift classroom where the children were taught the same basic subjects as preschoolers. They absorbed information so quickly that Dr. Anderson half-jokingly referred to them as having sponge brains. They were much more intelligent than children their age, but Sai was especially impressive. "Pretty sure that kid's a genius of some kind," Anderson said to Joan after giving the boy his weekly MRI. "Here's his brain activity last Wednesday, and here it is currently." She admired the comparative images. "He's really good with the tablet. We gave one to each of the Quads do to homework and he completed all the modules in one day. Every subject, like nothing was a challenge for him."

"Let's try giving him one. Put him on a first grade curriculum," Joan suggested. Anderson nodded and left to confer with the teachers.

Where Sai excelled at academics, Natt was the most physically adept of the four. His height and musculature were abnormal but they weren't due to a hormonal imbalance or any other measurable factor. He never complained of growing pains either, only that his clothes didn't fit right. Joan assigned one of the underlings to shop for him on a weekly basis. Sitting still for hours on end didn't agree with him, but his fidgeting and pencil-twirling annoyed the educators. Joan held a meeting with them and two of the psychologists. "What can be done to alleviate Natt's boredom?" she asked outright.

"Are you sure it's boredom and not ADHD?" the elder psychologist inquired. "Has he been tested for learning disabilities?"

"He's _not_ disabled," Joan stated, "he's a superhuman child who generates too much energy and doesn't have an outlet for it."

"Then maybe more hands-on lessons would be beneficial," the younger psychologist suggested, "or educational games with a competitive aspect. I'm sure the other Quads would enjoy those types of stimulation as well instead of being talked at for hours on end." The handful of teachers frowned at her criticism of their methods.

"It wouldn't hurt to try," Joan said in an attempt to prevent tempers from flying. Over the next couple weeks she observed the addition of games akin to Family Feud, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune to the Quads' curriculum. Natt seemed to enjoy them for the sole reason that he got to stand up and move around, and even though Sai had already surpassed most of the material, he participated because it let him interact with his siblings. Une preferred acting as the hostess who read the questions, which kind of threw off the symmetry of the learning experience, but Sai was more than enough of a match for Natt and Tvaer combined. Joan hoped that the need to provide vocal answers would prompt the girl to speak, but she still presented her responses on her tablet. Half the time the words were spelled wrong which made Joan wonder, and worry, if perhaps she _did_ have a learning disability like dyslexia.

Joan decided to step away from the long-term study and take some personal time off, just a week to get out of the lab and relax. She was the kind of woman who would rather order takeout and catch up with her favorite TV shows than go to the spa or something. She had a backlog of emails to respond to as well; she couldn't help that all of her time and energy had been focused on her children. _Her_ children. She wondered if she should inform her parents of them, then thought better of it. They'd only ask why she didn't have them "the old-fashioned way". Honestly, their beliefs were archaic. They thought producing offspring was the greatest feat a woman could achieve.

The day before returning to work she discovered an influx of emails from several members of the research team. One started off innocently enough with _'Natt grew another two inches!'_ , then: _'I tried drawing his blood but the needles wouldn't puncture his skin. He broke a whole pack before I gave up.'_

The next message concerned Une. _'I lost track of her for a solid hour. She disappeared from her room so I had everyone search the lab and corridor in case she got outside. When she finally reappeared she claimed she'd been in her room practicing cursive the whole time. We went through the security feed and confirmed she wasn't there, but when we showed her the video she got upset and kept saying she never left.'_

_'Professor Newtronium, I can't tell you how much of a pleasure it is to work with Sai. He is the most brilliant child I've ever encountered during my teaching career, and I've been at it for thirty years! He excels with the tablet and continues to complete homework modules with almost no errors. His penmanship needs work, though, and I believe he's ambidextrous. The other day I asked him to write an equation on the whiteboard and he did so with both hands!_

_Sorry for rambling. The point of this email was to ask your permission to start Sai on a second grade curriculum. I'm positive he can handle it.'_

_'Still no luck getting Tvaer to talk. The speech therapist thinks she's slow but I disagree. There are no physical explanations for why she remains mute so it must be her choice. I feel she's actually the most perceptive of her siblings. She had a cute moment with Tom the other day. He was futzing with a projector and Tvaer kept handing him the tools he needed without him having to ask, like she just knew. She's probably paying us more attention than we do her.'_

Joan kept an eye out for the described behaviors when she came back. Sai did seem overly attached to his tablet, carrying it with him at all times, but one of the specialists said it was normal for children to have a favorite toy. Tvaer continued making herself useful around the lab, gravitating toward scientists who struggled in some capacity even if they didn't express any signs of it. Joan personally saw a dozen needles snap against Natt's skin, frustrating the physicians. He also continued to grow a few millimeters each night, waking up taller than when he went to sleep. Une was the one who fully convinced Joan that her children had changed in a fundamental manner. While going over an equation, the girl embarrassed that she hadn't understood it at first, she abruptly vanished from sight. Joan stared at the spot where she'd been sitting. "Une?" She looked around but was alone in the storage closet that had been converted to her bedroom. "Where did you go?"

"I'm right here!" came her panic-tinged voice. "I'm here, Joan! Can you see me?!"

"No, I can't. Put your hand on my arm." Joan felt her small fingers trembling on her forearm. "Has this happened before?"

"Yes!" Une answered. "When you were on vacation, Mister Mack yelled at me 'cause he thought I wasn't in my room! I was but he didn't believe me!"

" _I_ believe you. I know you were trying to get better at cursive." Joan thought for a second. "I'm going to run some tests on you, Une. We'll figure out how you turned invisible."

She should have suspected the Chemical W was responsible. Once again its effects proved unpredictable by mutating the children's genomes. Joan could only chide herself for not sequencing them sooner. "Told you they were different," Anderson quipped.

Their lab didn't have the necessary equipment to run the full gamut of tests, so Joan had to smuggle her children to other departments within the facility. Natt turned out to be impervious to epidermal damage. Knives, saws, hammers, and even diamond drill bits failed to penetrate his skin, but Joan was unwilling to let him take a bullet in the name of science. He could also weather extreme temperatures and pressure.

Une could manipulate light around her. Her cloaking mechanism seemed to be related to her emotional state; when she wanted to disappear and be alone for a while, she did exactly that. She had greatly enhanced vision, she could withstand fatal doses of radiation, and if she really focused she could refract beams of light with her bare hands.

Sai's abilities were already apparent; everyone knew he was wicked smart and had a penchant for figuring out how things worked. Now as developed as a six year-old, Sai made his way through subjects taught in junior high. Joan was content to label him an example of Chemical W's complete neurological benefits.

Three more months went by and Tvaer still hadn't uttered a word. She listened attentively to her instructors and responded with "hmm" or "ah" during certain discussions, but around her siblings she was silent as a stone. "Aren't you sad that Tvaer doesn't talk to you?" Joan inquired one day while her children played with Legos.

They faltered briefly. "…She _does_ talk to us," Une replied.

"Really? I've never heard her. What does she say?"

"All kinds of stuff!" Natt answered.

"Can you be more specific? What do you talk about with her?" Joan caught the glances they exchanged and narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"We talk about animals," Sai said. "Tvaer likes animals. She really likes cats and dogs."

"Can we get a kitty, Joan?" Une asked. "I think it'd be fun to have a kitty. Or a puppy."

She shook her head. "I'm afraid we can't have animals in this laboratory."

"What if we went somewhere we could have one?"

"I'm afraid we can't do that, either," Joan said. "We have to stay here."

"When can we leave?" Natt wondered. "I wanna run across the Golden Gate Bridge!"

Joan gave him a long look. "How do you know about that?" Geography was the one subject they had not been taught. That was done purposely to limit their scope of the world. If a team member had let something slip, Joan would have to let them go. Natt only shrugged in response to her question so she tried a different one. "Do you know where we are right now?"

"Under the ground," Une answered. "Everyone has to come a long way down to get here."

"That's correct. Do you know how far down we are?"

"Eight thousand feet," Sai provided.

"Very good." Joan thought she was onto something. "How do you talk to Tvaer without anyone else hearing her?"

"We hear her in our heads," Natt explained.

That threw her for a loop. "What?"

"In our _heads_ ," he repeated, pointing to his temple. "Tvaer talks to us in our heads so she doesn't need to say stuff out loud."

"I'm not sure I understand. How is her voice in your heads?"

"It just is." Une frowned at her confusion. "It's been there for a long time. I first heard her telling me to wake up, and when I did, I saw you."

Joan could scarcely compute what they were saying. "Excuse me for a minute…" She all but ran from their designated play area, seeking her lead neurologist. "Doctor Anderson!" He whirled to face her. Joan never raised her voice but she sounded frantic. "Are there any precedents for telepathy?"

He arched an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"Mental communication, the transmission of thoughts, telepathy! What do you know about it?"

"Uhh… nothing?" He regarded her like she was crazy. "Telepathy isn't real."

"What if it is? What if Tvaer has it and that's why she hasn't spoken since she was born, because she doesn't need to?"

"That would be… something," Anderson said.

Joan grinned. "Something miraculous. A mutation caused by Chemical W!"

He held up his hands. "Let's not jump the gun here. What reasons do you have for suspecting Tvaer of being telepathic?"

"There's the fact that the children spoke as soon as they were born. It was rudimentary but they had the ability. What if Tvaer could hear the thoughts of those around her, hear _us_ , and we inadvertently taught her? What if she communicated her knowledge to her siblings? That might explain her issues with spelling too, if she's absorbing knowledge telepathically instead of paying attention to her textbooks."

"I…" Anderson slumped. "I don't know. It sounds crazy, Professor. But there are people who claim to be experts. Maybe one of them could be of use."

Joan invited a few to the laboratory. One woman wanted to test Tvaer using a deck of cards with symbols on them. Her job was to point to the matching card on her side of the divided table. Joan and the other scientists were astounded that she got through the whole deck with 100% accuracy. Another woman simply sat across from Tvaer and read a children's book in silence. It could have been coincidence that Tvaer laughed at the pages containing humorous plot points.

Lastly, an elderly man conversed with her in a secure observation room. "Hello, m'dear. What's your name?" he asked. A pause. "That's different, but pretty. Could you be a dear and write down my name?" Tvaer scribbled on her notepad before holding it up. "Dwight, that's right." She giggled at the rhyme. "Could you write down the names of my kids?" There were three. "How 'bout my grandkids?" Five of them. "Do you know where I was born?" Tvaer looked thoughtful. She spelled it "Filladellfeea". "Close enough," the man chuckled. "Can you draw the famous historical object found there?" She doodled a bell with a crack in it. Dwight nodded before rising to his feet to leave. "Well, I've seen enough. This little gal's got the gift."

"What can we do about it?" Joan queried. "Can we foster her ability?"

"Make sure her brain stays healthy. Interact with her, don't just leave her in a corner." His expression grew critical. "I don't know exactly what you people are doin' down here, but for god's sake give these kids some air. Let them see the sun."

Joan ignored that bit of advice and also the fact that Dwight hadn't laid eyes on Tvaer's siblings. If the children went outside the facility they might develop habits that would hinder the study, but perhaps she could improve their accommodations. They were surely the world's most well-behaved six year-olds and deserved some form of recreation to burn off their increasing energy, but moving shop meant Maximilian had to be informed of the children's existence. Joan could only hope he reacted favorably.

* * *

 _"He hates us,"_ Sai thought.

 _"He doesn't hate us,"_ Une refuted.

_"Then why is he staring at us like we're aliens or something?"_

_"Bet he's never seen kids like us,"_ Natt mused.

 _"No one has. Don't you remember how Joan's friends reacted when she introduced us?"_ Sai folded his arms as the big orange man and Joan left the lab to confer. _"They called us abominations."_

 _"What does that mean?"_ Tvaer asked.

 _"An abomination is something that shouldn't exist, shouldn't have been made."_ His siblings didn't like the sound of that. They tensed when Maximilian mentioned Tvaer. In addition to hearing her voice in their heads, they could hear each other when she was nearby. They could also feel what she felt. _"What's he saying, Tvaer?"_ Sai wondered.

 _"He wants to send me someplace… where I can train?"_ She tilted her head. _"Train my powers?"_

 _"To do what?"_ Natt pressed. _"Talk to us from father away?"_

Silence for a moment. _"Joan doesn't want me to go where the orange man wants to send me."_

 _"Do you_ _want to go?"_ Une asked. " _It might be fun to learn new things!"_

 _"Do they say where the place is?"_ Sai questioned.

Tvaer nodded. _"Nev… Nev-ah-dah. Where's that?"_

_"It's the state directly east of us, not too far."_

Joan and the orange man returned. "Children, this is Maximilian Morbucks. He's the person who made it possible for me to create you." They offered a collective "hi". "Tvaer, you have an important choice to make. Maximilian would like you to go to a different facility for specialized testing, but it would mean leaving your brothers and sister for a while. And you would have to talk to strangers."

Her silver eyes flicked between the two adults. She didn't really like the feeling she got from the orange man. He thought of her like the people who came to fix stuff thought of their tools. He intended to use her for something. _"Don't go,"_ Sai pleaded. _"He's a bad man."_

 _"You should_ _go,"_ Une and Natt cheered. _"You'll get to see outside!"_

Tvaer sensed the man didn't want to hurt her, and being able to leave the lab sounded pretty cool. "I want to go," she said in her new small voice. She sensed a wave of disappointment from Sai.

"Very well. You'll leave tomorrow morning." Joan was weird; she always felt different than she looked. She was worried and kind of mad at the orange man. But he was taking Tvaer outside for the first time in her life so he couldn't be a bad person.

She rode in a car, a really long one called a limo. There were tasty drinks and snacks and also a big TV in the back. "What do you want to watch?" Maximilian inquired.

Tvaer mulled it over. Sai got his homework tablet to play shows even though none of the other ones could. They only watched TV at night when the scientists went home and they left a few security guards posted outside the lab, but they didn't pay much attention. Une, Natt, and Tvaer snuck into Sai's room to check out the new shows he found. "Animal Planet!" she exclaimed. It was her favorite.

She fell asleep to a documentary on penguins, and when she woke up she was led into a big building surrounded by nothing but sand. It was hot and dry and she didn't like it, but inside was nice and cool. A group of people in white jackets looked excited to see her. "Here she is!" one woman grinned. She had dark skin like each of her siblings. "Gosh, you're such a pretty little girl!"

"Thank you…" Tvaer mumbled, because it was good manners to say that when people complimented her. The people she helped at the lab always gave compliments, but Joan, her teachers, and the doctors never thanked her for doing what they asked.

The woman held out her hand. "I'm Jessica, the head researcher at this facility. What we're going to try to do is measure your psionic output through a variety of tests."

"Sai-on-ick…" Tvaer repeated. "What's that mean?"

"Consider it like… the strength of your mind. Hopefully when you leave here, your brain will be stronger than it is right now." Jessica beamed. "How's that sound?"

She lifted one shoulder. "Okay, I guess."

"Ugh, you're just too cute! C'mon, let me show you around."

Tvaer got her own room. She had one in Joan's lab but this one was huge and it had a big, comfy bed as well as stuffed animals, bouncy toys, books, a slide, and a tablet with even more games on it than her other one. When she went to bed that night, she wished Sai were there to make it so she could watch Animal Planet.

The next day Jessica outfitted her with a metal headband. "This is made of sensors to tell us exactly what your brain is doing when you use telepathy. It's just a coincidence that it matches your eyes." Tvaer giggled. "Looks good! Now, if you'll follow me into this room…" She closed the door. "Professor Newtronium told us that you answered personal questions from a man who visited you."

"Dwight," Tvaer said. "He was nice."

"Glad to hear it! There's actually a boy in this facility with powers like yours. What I want you to do is tell me things about him even though you're not in the same room. Do you think you can do that?" Tvaer considered it, nodding. She always sensed a lot of people outside Joan's lab, but they were too clustered to hear their individual thoughts. "Great! Do your best!" Tvaer had no idea what it was like to encounter another telepath. She ignored the curiosity from the adults gathered beyond the room, zeroing in on the thoughts emanating from a lone person on the opposite side of the facility. As soon as she pressed him for information her head started hurting. "You okay, sweetie?" came Jessica's voice through a speaker. "We're reading a wave change."

"I'm… okay." The boy really didn't want to communicate with her, fighting her off. Tvaer struggled to articulate. "His name is… David. He's ten. He has… blond hair and… green eyes."

_"Who're you?! Get outta my head!"_

"He has a… a big scar on his leg that he broke playing s-soccer." Her headache intensified as he tried shutting her out completely. "H-he doesn't like school… the other kids are mean to him b-b-because his dad did something bad…"

"Alright, that's enough," Jessica cut in. Tvaer gasped as the mental pressure subsided. David had a lot more willpower than her, leaving her sweaty and shaky. She'd never been shoved away like that and it didn't feel good. The fact that he didn't even _try_ talking to her made her a little upset.

Thankfully Tvaer never encountered him again. Jessica asked her to sense other people who didn't have telepathy and describe what they were thinking. Sometimes she had to pinpoint people with weapons who were trying to break in and hurt her or the scientists, relaying their movements and plans of attack. Other times she had to seek out traitorous members of the team who intended on selling information to bad guys, or locate someone who had snuck in to steal data. Unknown to Tvaer her exercises coincided with actual simulations. The facility was used for training members of Maximilian's privately-owned paramilitary force.

He eventually came to take Tvaer back to Joan and her siblings. Jessica hugged her and said she hoped they'd meet again. Tvaer did, too; she liked this place except for the fact that it was in the desert. Joan's lab was right next to the ocean, something she didn't know until Sai told her they lived in a city called Townsville in the state of California. California had a long coastline and Tvaer made sure not to fall asleep during the drive so she could see the ocean. She smiled broadly at the vast expanse of blue with sunshine glittering across the surface, hoping she'd be able to convey her sense of wonderment to her siblings. There was so much to discover in their own backyard, if Joan ever let them play in it.

* * *

Sai had been asking a lot of questions since Tvaer left, questions regarding things he shouldn't know about. "What's gene editing?" he inquired of Joan one day, completely out of the blue.

She gave him a long look of consideration. "Gene editing is what I used to create you."

"So we weren't really born, we were made." He owlishly cocked his head. "Why did you make us?"

"There is an ingredient in your genome that no other person in the world has."

"The ingredient that gave my brother and sisters their abilities," he deduced.

"Correct." Joan wondered why he didn't say "our abilities".

"And this ingredient…" Sai went on, "you needed Mister Morbucks' help to get it? Was it expensive?"

Joan sighed and set down her reports on the still-living criminal subjects, whom she no longer cared about in the least. The Quads were all that mattered in the grand scheme of things. "What do you _really_ want to know, Sai?"

"Why did you make us?" he asked again.

"Because I wanted to prove that Chemical W can change humankind for the better, and you are living proof that it has. You, Une, Natt and Tvaer are unique in that you'll never get sick like other people."

Sai hummed. "So I'm smart because of Chemical W? It's not because I pay attention in class and do all my homework?"

Joan planted a hand on her hip. "Are you being sarcastic?" Sai rolled his eyes and looked away. Where on earth had this attitude come from? "Chemical W helps facilitate the way you acquire and process information," she explained. "When you learn something new you commit it to memory, and memories are formed by the exchange of neurotransmitters across synapses. At any given time you have more synapses active than anyone else, even your siblings. Doctor Anderson gives you so many MRIs so we can track your activity."

"Got it," was all he said, and walked away.

When Tvaer returned Sai grew moody and withdrawn, the exact opposite of how the adults expected him to greet his sister. Tvaer was even talking more, sharing stories of her experiences at the other facility. She mentally relayed all that she'd seen to her siblings, their way of maintaining some privacy since literally every aspect of their life was on display. About a week afterward Joan informed them that they were moving to a new lab where they would each have real bedrooms and toys, but still no access to the outside world much to Natt's disappointment. Their collective desire to run and play was alleviated by an indoor jungle gym that Maximilian had installed just for them. It was situated in a rotunda with screens mimicking a green field on a clear summer day, simulated sunlight shining down from above. Sai reasoned the vitamin D they were missing out on was a main ingredient in the supplemental pills they took every day, and he deduced the play area was the orange man's way of attempting to buy their affection.

Maximilian came around more often, observing the Quads alongside the scientists studying their behavior and development. They were equivalent to seven years old now and had established a group dynamic. Une was the leader, no question. She knew what each of her siblings liked and disliked and came up with ways to accommodate everyone so they rarely got into fights. When one of them used their abilities to gain an advantage over the others, Une scolded them for cheating. She had a strong sense of right and wrong but it was a black-and-white morality as a result of being told how things worked by adults. Sai knew better, knew a lot more than he let on. Their very existence was a grey area, one that mankind as a whole might not tolerate because of the way Joan made them. She'd done something called "playing God", and throughout human history people had killed fellow men and women in His name. Joan was a "blasphemer" and Sai couldn't help but wonder if people would want him and his siblings dead for being her creations rather than God's.

It was Dr. Anderson's turn to watch the Quads on the playground. Morbucks' paramilitary facility had been kind enough to send over a headband to monitor Tvaer's psionic output, which remained steady all day every day and increased at night for some mysterious reason. His colleagues wanted to figure out why, but the Quads evaded their questions. Anderson was going over Tvaer's previous data when he received a notification that her output had spiked, right there in front of him. He didn't see anything other than her and Sai lying side by side while playing a game on his tablet. "Hey, what're you two up to?" he casually inquired.

Not casual enough, apparently, because Sai immediately tucked it out of sight behind him. "Nothing," he answered.

"You working on a new math puzzle or something? I know you're learning geometry now."

"Yeah, math," Sai said dismissively. He stood up with Tvaer's hand in his own to lead her away.

Anderson waited until it was time to return to the lab, bringing up the rear. "Hey Sai, can I see your tablet?"

"No."

He kept playing nice. "I'd like to see how many modules you've completed."

"Thirty-three."

"Wow, you're over halfway done! Can I see which ones you have left?"

"No."

The amicable smile fell off Anderson's face. "Why can't I take a look at your tablet?"

"Because it's mine." Quicker than the boy could react, Anderson snatched it from his small hand. Sai instantly leapt at him. "Give it back!" he shouted, reaching for the device like it was his lifeline. "Give it back, you'll break it!" When the doctor saw the homescreen, his eyes went wide the second before Sai kicked him in the kneecap much harder than a seven year-old should've been able to. He took the tablet and ran off to his room.

Anderson sucked his teeth and limped after the boy. "Get back here, you little shit!" Several other scientists stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Cursing was highly frowned upon in Joan's lab. The woman herself rounded a corner and leveled him with a hard look.

"What's going on, Doctor? Why are you yelling at my children like that?" Une, Natt, and Tvaer stood stock-still. No one had ever directed outright anger at them, and Tvaer's emotional response had paralyzed her siblings.

Anderson attempted to straighten but his leg was in too much pain. "I'm only yelling at Sai," he said. Joan quirked an eyebrow. "He kicked me."

"'Cause he tried taking Sai's tablet!" Une piped up. The doctor shot her a nasty glare and her cerulean eyebrows furrowed in return.

"Why?" Joan asked simply.

He proffered his own work tablet for inspection. "There was a noticeable shift in Tvaer's mental output while she and Sai were playing a game or something. I just wanted to find out what caused the spike."

Joan spared Tvaer a glance. The woman then spun on her heel and marched into Sai's room, determined to get to the bottom of everything right then and there. "Where is it?" she demanded.

They both knew he was too smart to play dumb, but he still tried. "Where's what?"

"Your tablet. Give it to me."

Sai briefly met her gaze with a look of defiance, then drew his knees to his chest and buried his face in them. "No."

"Sai…" Joan loomed over him. "Give it to me." He wasn't scared of her, she noted, just very reluctant. That was probably a good thing because Joan didn't _want_ the children to fear her or anyone else on her team, that way they'd be more compliant. They never objected to the exams and tests they endured, never shied from being poked and prodded. Until now, none of them had openly defied anyone. "Let me see your tablet, Sai." He removed it from his pillow case, keeping his head lowered.

Joan spent a minute studying the homescreen. There were a few different web browsers, a language suite, translator, video streaming services, and apps for Wikipedia and Google Earth, none of which had been installed when Sai received it. It was for educational purposes and didn't even have the same operating system as a typical tablet. "What is this?" Joan asked, facing him squarely. "How did all these programs get installed? Did someone do it for you?" Sai muttered a "no". "You need to tell me."

He mumbled and grumbled before lifting his head. "I did it." Joan raised an eyebrow for him to elaborate. "I made it into one like you have."

"How, Sai? Tell me." Surely he couldn't have… _hacked_ it or something. He was highly intelligent but hardly a technological genius.

"I… I saw inside it when Mrs. Helen gave them to us." She was their primary educator, the woman who wrote the glowing email about Sai.

"What do you mean you saw inside it?" Joan pressed. "You took it apart and put it back together?" He was always partial to Legos.

Sai shook his head once. "No, I mean, I _saw_ inside it. Like I went _inside_ it. There was this weird noise, like buzzing, and I fell asleep listening to it. When I woke up, I was inside. Everything was all white and tingly, and there was light zooming past me with _stuff_ in it like… like messages in bottles."

Joan continued staring at him for at least ten seconds. Her children had said a lot of odd things since their awakening but this was by far the strangest. "I don't understand."

Sai groaned and clutched at his hair. "That's because you can't! No one can! I tried explaining it to the others and they don't understand, either!"

"Why don't you try drawing me some pictures?" Joan suggested. "You can use the whiteboard." They left his room and crossed the lab, the other children attempting to follow. "Stay," Joan ordered, pointing a strict finger at them. She wasn't happy they'd encouraged Sai to mess with his tablet, to access knowledge he never should have been exposed to. Obviously he'd shared his discoveries with them.

What Sai scribbled due to his lackluster artistic talent didn't really help Joan comprehend what he was trying to convey. He heard all kinds of electronics buzzing, not just the tablet but cell phones and computers and other equipment connected to the facility's network. If he focused on the noise, he blacked out and became able to see and hear inside the network. After a few occurrences he discovered he could navigate the light paths and travel to sources other than the one he'd entered, and from them he requested information. It was one of the most far-fetched explanations Joan had ever been presented with thus far… until she recalled what Maximilian said about uploading human consciousness to machines. Suddenly everything clicked.

Sai could tap into the internet with his mind.

He wanted more than the limited information Joan and her team was willing to provide, so he went in search of things that would help him understand the world beyond the laboratory. First he had to alter the tablet's inherent coding to function like a personal computer, which he admitted was difficult and confusing. Once he'd installed a new operating system alongside the factory one to fool Mrs. Helen, he educated himself on culture, language, religion, politics, and academic subjects outside his current curriculum. His knowledge reservoir was theoretically bottomless and for that Joan couldn't quite be upset with him. She was, after all, a scientist whose duty it was to help unravel the enigma of life. Sai went about doing just that in his own unique way.

Joan still scolded Sai for kicking Dr. Anderson, but she was more angry at the man for swearing at her child. The apparent force Sai had used warranted a new series of tests for all the children, and the results were fascinating. So fascinating that Joan wanted to reach out to the one man who would truly appreciate what she'd accomplished with Chemical W: John Utonium.


	3. Our Dreams, We Sold Every Last One

Both professors were punctual, arriving at their meeting place at the same time. "I've never been here before," John remarked, glancing at the signage for Café Een. Never mind that he hadn't had any contact with his best friend for eight months.

"They make the best coffee in Townsville." Joan held the door for him, then ordered café au lait while John opted for his tried-and-true hazelnut cappuccino. It was impossible to count how many gallons of coffee and espresso they'd guzzled during grad school. Joan claimed a table in the far corner to keep their conversation relatively private. "I've made a stunning breakthrough with Chemical W," she began without any pretense.

John's lips immediately turned down. He'd been under the assumption Joan abandoned Project W due to burnout. In her language, the words "stunning breakthrough" meant she'd done something she probably shouldn't have. "What sort of breakthrough?"

"I may have created actual superheroes."

He did not know how to react to her beaming smile. "Superheroes?" he echoed.

"Yes, superheroes! Real people with special abilities!"

His Adam's apple bobbed nervously. "You… experimented on humans with Chemical W." A statement, not a question.

She nodded. "I did."

"Joan…"

Her exuberance faded in the face of his incredulity. _"What have you done?"_ she heard him asking, just like her team members. Also like them, he would come to understand her reasoning. "Let me explain, John. I hate to say it but Project W reached a standstill. That's why I left."

His brow furrowed. "Didn't you tell me someone's life was at stake? Wasn't that reason enough to continue pushing forward?"

"Of course it was, but I received the opportunity to take W in a different direction. Maximilian Morbucks reached out to me. Not only did he grant me unlimited personal funding, he helped me get permission from the SDC to begin clinical trials."

"He helped you." Meaning his vast fortune had paid someone off in order to skirt the rules. This was one reason why John despised the notion of corporate entities sticking their greedy hands into scientific pursuits they didn't understand. "So you work for that man now."

"Yes," Joan confirmed, "and I have my own team at a state-of-the-art facility."

God, what happened to her integrity? John couldn't believe she'd sold out so easily. Then again, she never liked being told "no". "What was the outcome of the trials?" he asked to avoid the fact that the woman sitting across from him was rapidly becoming a stranger. "Did your subjects express the negative effects of Chemical W?"

"They did– several varieties of neurological degeneration. It was disheartening, but it only prompted me to try something radical." Joan leaned forward over her coffee cup. "W failed when administered orally and intravenously, so I introduced it genetically."

"Joan, you didn't…"

She only grinned, so proud of herself. "I want you to meet them, the world's first humans augmented with Chemical W. They're incredible, John. They have amazing potential."

He downed the rest of his cappuccino in order to prevent himself from shouting at her. Clearly she couldn't hear the disappointment in his tone. Still, John couldn't deny his curiosity; he needed to know how mad a scientist Joan had become. "All right," he agreed, "show me."

The shipping yard was an odd location for science to be conducted. Odder still was how the building extended several stories down instead of up. Since Morbucks owned it he likely had things to hide, such as the outcomes of genome editing experiments. John maintained a stoic countenance as Joan used a key card to unlock the door to her laboratory. Several researchers turned toward them, eyeing their boss's guest with either mistrust or curiosity. "This way," Joan motioned, "it's their recreation hour."

John's heart rocketed into his throat as soon as he stepped through the doors leading to the play area. He hadn't been expecting _children_. The little girl with white hair noticed him first, staring at him from across the carpet of fake grass. The other three stopped what they were doing to stare as well. "This is my friend John!" Joan called to them. "Come say hi!"

They approached somewhat cautiously like most kids did when meeting strangers, yet it was plain to see they were anything but typical. John did not possess the vocabulary to accurately describe how it felt to look upon them, but as a whole he was crushed. Crushed by the knowledge that the brilliant and accomplished woman standing beside him had the capacity to do something so… _inhumane_. He could not fathom what drove Joan to embed Chemical W into human DNA when neither of them fully understood its effects. "Morbucks gave you permission to do this?" he softly questioned.

"Not exactly," Joan admitted. "I started splicing Chemical W onto select zygotes while the clinical trial was ongoing."

John swallowed. He doubted she had legally obtained the genetic material needed for her experiment if she'd used the study as a cover. It made him ill to think Joan could stoop so low. Had he _ever_ really known her? He knelt to the children's eye level. "Hi…" he greeted, offering a hand, "I'm John Utonium. What are your names?"

"Une, Tvaer, Natt, and Sai," Joan answered for them. Sai folded his arms and scowled at having been denied the simple courtesy of introducing himself.

John tried another query. "How old are you?"

"We're seven!" Une exclaimed.

"Their rate of development is accelerated," Joan added. "I haven't been able to establish a pattern so far, but they're at the physical equivalent of seven years old. Mentally they're about ten."

"Except me," Sai stated. " _I_ read at a seventh-grade level."

"That's very impressive," John replied. "What's your favorite book so far?"

His golden eyes flicked to Joan. " _The Call of the Wild_."

"A classic," she said coolly.

John had an inkling as to the cause of the tension between them. "Have you gone on any field trips?"

"I did once," Tvaer answered. "I went to a lab like this in the desert."

John raised an eyebrow at his former colleague. "She went to a facility in Nevada," Joan clarified. "Tvaer is telepathic."

"She's what?"

The woman grinned. "Go on, Tvaer. Talk to John like you talk to your siblings."

_"Are you a professor, too?"_

"Astounding!" he breathed. "How do I respond?"

"Just think what you wanna say," Natt offered. "She'll hear it." And so would the rest of them.

John closed his eyes. _"Yes, I'm a professor like Joan."_

 _"Where do you live?"_ Tvaer then asked.

_"Here in Townsville, in the neighborhood of Pokey Oaks."_

_"You shouldn't feel sad for us."_ He opened his eyes as Tvaer continued. _"You're sad that we can't go outside, but I already got to see the ocean. Joan says we can't leave this place yet, but someday we will."_

John faced Joan. "Have they exhibited the known side effects of Chemical W?"

"None whatsoever," she smiled. "I'm fairly certain the compound will prevent them from developing illnesses of any kind."

"I see… And what sort of abilities do the rest of you have?" he wondered. Individual demonstrations followed. Une turned invisible and Natt weathered a good-natured assault from all three of his siblings, laughing because it didn't hurt one bit. Sai went last, accepting John's phone and messing with a few apps before restoring everything to working order. Joan then said it was time for John to leave, escorting him out of the lab. He remained silent until they entered the elevator. "It's wrong."

"What is?"

"You're keeping those children locked up down here and ignorant of the real world." There was more vehemence in his tone than intended.

Joan huffed. "They stay in the lab for their own safety– their powers are still developing. And they're hardly ignorant of anything. Sai took the liberty of enlightening himself as well as his siblings."

"So he subverted your plans to keep them ignorant." John couldn't bear to look at her. "You can't treat them like lab rats, Joan. They're human beings."

"No, they're not," she refuted. "They're beyond humanity. Chemical W gave them powers that only existed as fantasy elements in books, comics, and movies. _I_ made them a reality, John. _I_ heralded the next stage of human evolution."

"Is that what you thought you were doing when you _stole_ their genetic material, enhancing the human race?" They glared at one another. "Was creating something you hardly understand and will likely lose control over worth walking away from all our work with Project W?"

Joan lifted her chin. "Absolutely. It was absolutely worth it, John. You don't get to deride my accomplishments when you were too afraid to push boundaries."

"I was _afraid_ we had entered waters we didn't know how to navigate once we finished synthesizing W, and my worries were clearly justified! Look what it did to those kids! They'll never be able to live normal lives!"

"They were never meant to." Joan didn't let his expression of disgust faze her. John was too small-minded to understand. "They're proof that it's possible to live without sickness. They're proof of genetic perfection. It's not a utopian concept, it's real. My children are the future, here and now. They're going to help each one of the seven billion people on this planet after we start synthesizing cures from their blood."

John scoffed lightly. "Oh, I see. This was all about maximizing profits for Morbucks." Joan opened her mouth to defend herself but just then the elevator doors parted and he walked out, pausing to turn back. "I never want to hear from you again."

"I'm sure I'll forget all about you as your name fades into obscurity," Joan retorted. And that was it, the end of their friendship. Uneasy silence greeted her when she returned to the lab. "Get back to work!" she spat.

A younger geneticist approached. "Umm, Professor… we're worried about Professor Utonium. Won't he tell people what we're doing here?"

"No, he won't," Joan assured. "We developed Chemical W and engaged in the preliminary trial together. He's as much a part of the initial research and development as me. If I face an inquiry by the SDC, so will he." And no scientist working in Townsville wanted _that_ on their record.

* * *

A few months passed; the Quads were now eight years old. Thanks to Sai, Tvaer learned that the emotion Professor Utonium felt toward them wasn't sadness, it was pity. Some of the people working in the lab also felt it for them, but no one ever said anything. Life had become monotonous and predictable for the Quads. They woke up, got dressed in the same plain grey ensembles they'd worn for the past year, sat through their increasingly-irrelevant classes, ran around their fake playground, ate the same bland nutritionally-balanced meals, endured the same tests and exams, then went to bed. The only thing they had to look forward to each night was watching TV together on Sai's tablet, where they spoke freely since no one was around to listen and judge them. "I can't wait to go outside," Une said aloud with a sigh. "See the city, feel the sun, play in a real park…"

Sai cast a glance at his sister. "It's not going to happen."

"How do you know? _Tvaer_ got to go outside," she countered.

"So Morbucks could determine how useful she is to him. He's the one in charge of everything, you know."

Une sighed again and held up her hand, her arm shimmering as she concentrated on turning only it invisible. Her other arm followed, then her legs, leaving her a dismembered torso. "You look like a potato," Natt commented.

" _You_ look like a… a vampire!" she snickered.

Natt pouted. It wasn't his fault the physicians had resorted to drawing blood from his inner eyelids, the only known part of his body that didn't repel foreign objects. His sclera were often red thanks to the needles and numbing gel. Coupled with his vivid orange irises he somewhat resembled a supernatural entity. "At least I don't have _blue hair_." He tugged on one of her curly cerulean locks, earning a giggle as she swatted his hand away.

 _"I like Une's hair,"_ Tvaer thought, _"it's pretty and fun to braid."_

_"Your hair is pretty, too. It's super soft and shiny."_

Sai rolled his eyes. "If you like each other's hair so much go play with it instead of disrupting this show."

"No!" the girls chorused, resuming their viewing positions. The restored silence only lasted for a minute, then Natt fell back with a groan.

"I'm bored. I wanna go outside. There're so many games we could play."

"Like basketball?" Une suggested. There was a hoop attached to the jungle gym, but they had grown tall enough that it was too easy to make baskets.

"Yeah, and soccer, football, baseball, volleyball, hockey, lacrosse…"

 _"Swimming!"_ Tvaer put in.

"Or tennis," Sai added. Sports didn't really appeal to him but he thought he might like that one. A single opponent, a racket, a ball, and reflexes. On second thought, it might be too easy since they were stronger and faster than normal people. They hadn't really noticed until that day Sai kicked Doctor Anderson. The only thing he regretted was getting his siblings subjected to more tests. Ironically, Sai was the weakest of the four; Anderson probably would've broken his leg if Natt had kicked him.

Their special abilities improved as they continued to grow exponentially. Sai no longer needed his tablet to access the internet since he could now link his consciousness with any device connected to the network, hardwired or wireless. The buzzing signals became background noise he learned to tune out, but once inside the network he became physically unresponsive and thus vulnerable. With Natt watching over him, though, he had nothing to worry about. His brother was utterly indestructible and overpowered to boot, his bite, grip, punch and kick forces off the charts. A few scientists still wanted to find out if he was bulletproof but Joan refused their propositions. Une began experimenting with altering her appearance instead of vanishing altogether. By actively controlling the amount of light around her, she determined how people saw her. At first she could only change the colors of her features, but then she learned how to change their shape and texture. Of course, her powers were reliant on perception and the glamours were easily dispelled by making physical contact.

Since it was futile to keep them in the dark any longer, the Quads received regular tablets complete with internet access, although their activity was monitored. Sai promptly removed that software from his device and installed it on one of the workstations connected to the lab's closed network. Now he could view the data the scientists generated… and find out what purpose Joan had really created them to fulfill.

Before Sai could delve too deeply, Maximilian came by the lab on one of his "progress surveys". The Quads continued playing on the jungle gym while he and Joan stood near the exit. "To what do we owe this visit?" the woman questioned.

"I'm intrigued by your latest reports," he answered succinctly. "You say you're getting close to synthesizing medicine made from their blood, but given their unique abilities I can think of much more practical applications. You called them superheroes, after all, and what do heroes do?" Joan blinked at him. "They fight bad guys and save people."

"You're not thinking…"

"I'm thinking they would be a valuable addition to my private security force." Maximilian ignored the look of slight horror on her face. "You've got a girl who reads minds, another girl who turns invisible, a boy who can't be injured, and another boy who can do everything a computer does but better." He flashed a withering look. "You're going to tell me they're only suited for life as blood bags?"

Joan didn't know what to say. Developing the cure-all had been their primary goal from the beginning. Maximilian funded her research to profit in the medical sector. "I really don't see how they'd be useful in any other endeavor."

"That's because you don't know how enterprising I truly am, Professor." Maximilian gave the Quads a smug little smile before turning on his heel, Joan trailing. "It would be foolish to pour money into private security without receiving financial gain. I have enemies, yes, and my soldiers protect me from them, but I also loan personnel to foreign and domestic authorities when they require off-the-books solutions to tough problems."

"And you think my children can help with that."

The man nodded. "I know they can. And they _will_."

Joan set her jaw. "I don't feel particularly inclined to let them join your paramilitary force."

"I'm particularly inclined to say you don't have a choice, Professor." Max smirked. "Not only did you go behind my back and use my funding for a project I never approved of, I have it on good authority you acquired those kids' DNA without permission. Any way you look at it, my money facilitated their existence, therefore they're my intellectual property." That wasn't completely true, but Maximilian was banking on the fact that Joan didn't know that.

She scoffed. "Let me guess– if I don't let you use them for dirty work, you'll pull your funding."

"And run you out of Townsville, and ensure you're excluded from GE circles around the globe, and basically end your career," Maximilian added with a sneer.

Joan took a silent minute to weigh her options. She hardly wanted to let the Quads out of her sight, didn't want to miss a single moment of their development much less allow her benefactor to send them who-knew-where for training. Their powers were growing, too. She doubted Maximilian cared about gathering data, but it was important for Joan to quantify her progress so she'd have real numbers to present when it came time to reveal her children to the world. And yet… she didn't want her career to end with them. The Quads were an open doorway to all kinds of scientific advancements. They were the future and Joan was at the forefront of it. She couldn't just give that up after everything!

"How can my children help you?"

* * *

Tvaer stayed behind while her siblings began their journeys. As they each left the lab with people she'd never sensed before, she mentally clung to them as long as possible until their voices faded. Her first night alone wasn't so bad, or the one after. She could stream Animal Planet all by herself. It just… it wasn't the same. It was quiet, the scientists so focused on their work that there weren't any interesting thoughts in their heads. She wondered why no one had come to take her anywhere. What about Nevada where Jessica worked? Did they still want to measure her psionic output? Tvaer liked helping people but none of the scientists needed it; they told her to "run along" and "go play" but there was no one to play with.

She bounced a ball off one wall of her room, the rhythm putting her in a bit of a trance. She was bored to tears. The ball unexpectedly failed to return to her hand, disrupting the rhythm. Tvaer stared at it suspended in the air, like it had frozen. Her understanding of gravity said that wasn't supposed to happen.

Joan flung the bedroom door open wide, startling Tvaer. The ball fell to the floor and rolled away.

* * *

Natt went to Colorado, a landlocked state with no ocean views like California, but the facility he was taken to more than made up for being "stuck". Not that he felt trapped in any way; on the contrary, the sheer wonder of his surroundings coupled with the elevation made him a little lightheaded. He had to stay inside for a few days while his body acclimated, then the people in charge took him on a tour of the whole compound. It was supposedly for training soldiers who wanted to join Mr. Morbucks' private military, but it looked like one big playground minus slides and swings. There were also green fields where cadets played football and soccer, a basketball court, swimming pool, and a track. The first thing Natt did after being assigned a bunk in the barracks was run around the track to his heart's content. According to the handler assigned to look after him, he ran the equivalent of twenty miles.

Natt went to the same classes as the cadets, learning things from members of elite military forces around the globe: Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Berets, Marine Raiders, British SAS, Russian Spetsnaz, French paratroopers, and commandos from several other countries. He was being taught to think tactically; it was Maximilian's goal to turn Natt into the greatest combat operative the world had ever seen. After all, he was indestructible.

But that word was not synonymous with "invincible".

* * *

Une didn't just get to ride in a limousine, she got to fly _on a plane_ to a state called Texas. It was the most exciting thing that ever happened to her, hands down. Better still, she got to sit near the pilots in first class! An adult accompanied her, a lady named Parker. She didn't talk much until they touched down, then Parker informed Une that engineers were going to try to derive cloaking technology from her ability to turn invisible. It sounded fun at first, but she only ended up sitting in _another_ laboratory with sensors stuck all over her body, and the technicians kept taking samples of her skin. They were attempting to make _artificial chromatophores_ that people could put on like a suit and select disguises from preprogrammed options. They laughed and called her a "human chameleon". Une didn't like that; chameleons were kind of ugly. But… _she_ looked ugly now. She had itchy discolored patches all over her arms, legs and torso, and the gel they put on her skin to alleviate the pain made her smell weird.

Eventually the engineers said they had enough samples of her epidermis to experiment with, so Parker took her on another plane to the state of Colorado. It was much prettier, with mountains and forests and rivers. They went to a lodge out in the middle of nowhere, but from the helicopter they flew in on Une saw a network of tree houses, obstacle courses, and big green fields. Parker told her that she was going to go through something called "boot camp". Une would get to run, jump, climb, and learn how to fight. Everything but the last part sounded fun. She didn't want to hurt anyone.

Much to her surprise, Natt was already there. He'd been there for the past month and was ahead with his training, but Une determined to catch up. Parker said Tvaer and Sai would be joining them as well once Maximilian finished his projects. It made Une and Natt even happier knowing they'd all get to experience the great outdoors together.

* * *

Sai traveled the farthest distance, heading to Alaska where he entered a communications base hidden away in the snowy mountains. The people in charge of the facility explained that they kept tabs on Russia, China, and North Korea, and they wanted his help to extract information the nations hadn't been very forthcoming about. The sheer number of converging signals made Sai antsy, but then he plugged into a massive server and… it was wonderful. There was so much information available, seemingly infinite lines of data to browse, and he got distracted by downloading things of personal interest instead of doing as requested. No one could communicate with him since his consciousness went wandering while he was networked, essentially leaving him comatose. Ten hours and a rumbling stomach later he awoke, promising to cooperate tomorrow.

He wasn't a dumb little kid like they thought; he knew what constituted spying. But Sai hadn't yet received the opportunity to explore foreign networks and gladly took advantage of his situation. He told the tech people everything they wanted to know while downloading as much information as possible to his brain. He learned Russian in two days, Mandarin in three, and Korean in just one, able to speak, read, and write with native proficiency. Sai decided it would be fun to learn every language known to mankind. He was already fluent in Spanish and Thai, discovering the latter at age six when he attempted to find out the meaning of his name.

It was a number. His entire identity was just a number Joan had assigned him for the sake of her experiment. He was the last one to awaken in his incubation chamber so she sensibly named him "Four".

Sai couldn't find the right way to explain "child abuse" to his brother and sisters who were also nothing more than numbered test subjects to Joan. She had been abusing them since they were born, dehumanizing them, and exploiting them for personal gain. Nothing about their life was "normal" like she said, and as she kept preying upon their assumed ignorance by feeding them lies, the more resentful Sai grew. The only reason he continued to let Joan and Maximilian use him was because he could not feasibly support himself or his siblings in the outside world… not yet, anyway. Little did the authority figures know that everything they did to Sai, everything he endured, only made him more capable of surviving on the planet they thought they ruled.

Once free of his shackles, he'd tear their entire kingdom asunder.

* * *

Joan accompanied Tvaer to the desert facility in Nevada where Maximilian believed her psionic powers could be bolstered with the right methodology. The head researcher of the Enhanced Neurology Division, Doctor Jessica Byers, greeted Tvaer exuberantly; Joan felt a twinge of jealousy. "She's begun expressing signs of having telekinesis," Maximilian informed the woman. "I'd like you to get her to fully realize that ability."

"I'll do what I can, Sir," Jessica replied, turning to Joan. "You brought all of Tvaer's data from your lab?" Joan wordlessly handed her a flash drive. "Thank you. I look forward to working with you!"

When Joan burst into Tvaer's room it was because her real-time brainwave activity had abruptly shifted from a steady lo-beta readout to a delta pattern. If Tvaer had been napping, as was Joan's initial hypothesis, the waves would have gradually slowed, but the sudden drop in activity concerned her. Based on that information Jessica suggested they try some meditation exercises to induce a similar mental state. Tvaer sat in a plain white room with a metronome or ambient sounds playing, but neither worked. She just got bored and started fidgeting. Next they tried some perpetual motion toys which yielded some results. There were no _real_ examples of perpetual motion in nature because nothing could move without an external force acting upon it, and Tvaer's willpower was such a force. Now it was only a matter of increasing her output.

A week passed, then two, then a month. Maximilian was getting impatient; he needed to know if Tvaer would be useful in the field like the other Quads. Just thinking of how much he could make off her by marketing her as a psionic soldier, the first of her kind, made him want to expedite the process. Yet Joan and Jessica both said her telekinesis had to increase _gradually_ to perform at the level he expected, like mental weight training, lest she grow older without being able to maintain control over her own powers. As a minor consolation, the range of her telepathy had expanded to a ten-mile radius.

Maximilian went over the data Joan and Jessica presented, his lips pressed into a line like the one indicating Tvaer's growth had plateaued. "This is unacceptable," he said, all but tossing the papers onto the table dividing them. "I expected to see an improvement between my last visit and now. Why hasn't any progress been made?"

Jessica sighed. "Honestly, Sir, it's because she's still a child. Her brain is still developing along with her body. There's no way to calculate Tvaer's rate of growth either thanks to the Chemical W spurts."

"So you're saying I have to wait for her to get older before her abilities are fully realized."

Joan nodded. "That is correct."

Maximilian searched the tabletop in contemplation. "When I invest so much money into a project, I expect results I can capitalize on. That girl has yet to prove worthy of her investment."

"You've read and understood the data. We've taken every avenue short of psychiatric medication." Jessica spread her hands. "What more do you expect us to do?"

The man raised a derisive eyebrow. "If drugs will get me the results I want, you'd better use them."

Joan's jaw clenched. "I'm _not_ dosing my child with unnecessary medication. Tvaer's brain chemistry is already unique– there's no way to predict how it would affect her."

"Drugs could very well undo the progress we've already made," Jessica added, "or hinder her development as a whole."

"The whole point of making Chemical W part of the human genome was to alleviate the need for medicine of any kind," Joan said with a note of finality.

Maximilian stared at the two women. There was no doubting their brilliance, that's why they worked for him, but for some reason they didn't understand that he could take away their project funding just as easily as he'd offered it. Without him they'd be stuck doing the same menial things as others in their respective fields instead of setting precedents and pushing boundaries. And really, how could they claim to take the moral high ground after everything they'd done, especially Joan? Drugging children was wrong but illegally genetically engineering them and raising them in a controlled environment was fine? Hypocrite.

Of course they consented after he stated these facts. Based on Tvaer's biology, Joan made a list of psychotropic drugs that were the least likely to harm her and also the most likely to have an effect. After another month of trial, error, and causing great distress to the poor girl, they achieved the outcome Maximilian was after. The medication made Tvaer extremely compliant and semi-lucid while inducing delta brainwaves, the pattern required for her to perform telekinesis. He returned to the lab for a demonstration of Tvaer's newly-enhanced abilities, standing with Joan and Jessica on the sidelines of the in-house racquetball court where a male soldier faced off against a seemingly invisible opponent. Tvaer sat cross-legged against the wall, her eyes half-lidded and cloudy as her racquet moved with precision. "Impressive," Maximilian commented. "At this rate I think it would be easy to teach her how to wield more formidable weapons."

"Like guns?" Joan asked.

"More like unmanned drones and mechs," he corrected, weathering her disdain.

"We _did_ try some fencing exercises," Jessica put in. "Tvaer didn't really have a penchant for it."

"Because I didn't design her for violence," Joan snapped. "She's supposed to help people, not hurt them."

Maximilian smirked. "Who says I won't be sending her on missions to help people? I pursue charitable endeavors, you know."

Joan spun on her heel to leave the court, muttering, "You're a greedy bastard."

The man heard it, snagging her arm and pushing her roughly against the door. "Check your attitude, Professor, and remember that none of this would have been possible without me. That little girl wouldn't exist if not for me. You owe me _everything_."

"I don't owe you _anything!_ " Joan returned. "Chemical W was _my_ invention. It was _my_ idea to splice it onto the human genome. Tvaer and her siblings are my creation and mine alone!"

"They were made with _my_ money and _my_ equipment, so they belong to me. Those children are products and I'm going to use them in whatever profitable manner I see fit."

The soldier and Tvaer had stopped their match, distracted by the commotion at the door. "Professor Newtronium, Mister Morbucks, please calm down!" Jessica pleaded. Joan attempted to wriggle free of Maximilian's grasp, accidentally hitting his large nose. If there was one thing the man despised more than dissenting scientists it was being struck in the face. His right hand rose to slap some sense into Joan, but then it refused to fall as if someone held it in place. His anger vanished, replaced by fascination as he glanced at Tvaer. She wore the same blank expression but her eyes looked a little less hazy, laser-focused on him. Everyone froze for a moment, then the tension snapped when Maximilian was violently thrown through the large window.

Exclamations arose from other people within the recreation area while several soldiers and scientists rushed to help their benefactor. Tvaer's opponent, Joan, and Jessica all regarded her with open-mouthed stares. She rose to her feet, lowered her racquet into the soldier's hands, and walked out into the hallway littered with glass. Maximilian attempted to smooth his hair and brush shards off his coat simultaneously, turning to look at the girl. Much to the surprise of everyone present, he grinned. "Now _that's_ what I wanted to see."

His psionic soldier was ready to begin combat training with her siblings.


	4. We Don't Need No Thought Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning** : this chapter is rated M for molestation, but it's not described in graphic detail.

Joan was losing control.

Maximilian hadn't completely taken the children from her… yet. They were currently learning how to fight his wars at a camp in the Rockies while Joan was stuck helping other geneticists with their trivial projects in Townsville. At least it gave her time to think of a way to bring the Quads back to her where they belonged.

The solution was so simple that Joan laughed once she realized it: Maximilian wouldn't want them if they were useless to him. The children were special, so she had to make them… not special. But how could she do that when they were unique down to their very DNA?

She borrowed a phone from somebody and dialed a number she knew by heart. "This is John Utonium speaking," he answered after a couple rings. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Don't hang up," Joan said, and she envisioned his brow knitting and lips frowning in disapproval. "John, I… I could use your help with something."

"And what might that be?" His tone was clipped.

"I need to unmake what I made."

Silence for a beat. "You want to destroy those children?"

" _No!_ No, I would never destroy them!" Joan took a moment to recover from the shock of that inquiry. He really assumed the worst of her! "They're superhuman, so I need to make them regular humans."

"How do you expect me to help with that?" he returned. "I think it's safe to say neither of us accurately predicted how Chemical W would turn out."

"You're right, you're right…" she admitted, "I still don't understand how it mutated the human genome to such an extent. But if it's possible we could nullify it at the cellular level, the children might be able to live normal lives."

John considered it. "Is that what you want for them?"

"I don't want them to be used by Maximilian," Joan said.

"Just you, then," he clarified, scathing.

"Well, yes. They were designed for the betterment of humanity."

On the other end of the line, John pinched the bridge of his nose. "You say those children are superior to humans yet you continue treating them inhumanely. You designed them for _you_ , to prove you could achieve some kind of positive result with Chemical W at the cost of your ethics. I said I never wanted to hear from you again and I meant it!" He hung up on her. Joan gave the phone an indignant look before it shifted to dismay. She neither knew a more ingenious biochemist nor someone as familiar with W as her.

But all hope was not lost. When Joan got home she spent a couple hours catching up with John's progress, or at least what his research group published since she left, and learned they had successfully reversed the degenerative neurological effects of Chemical W with the aid of a new compound, X. They also had a new benefactor, Natasha Carrington, a well-to-do woman who ran several charitable organizations. Her husband was someone's trust fund child. Apparently their old investor, Hastings, had passed away.

Mojo was alive and well, back to his hyper-intelligent self thanks to Chemical X. Joan watched a few YouTube videos of his antics posted by Jane Goodwin. That got her wondering how John's new compound would affect the Quads. He designed it personally and was the only member of the collective who knew the full formula because he didn't want any of his colleagues to take it and go rogue like Joan had. One publicized detail was that it contained biodegradable nanites, and Mojo was under strict observation to see if the microscopic robots would induce negative effects. So far the results were only positive but John was taking the time to properly study Chemical X, like Joan should have done with W.

She didn't have time to waste if she wanted to wrest the Quads back from Maximilian. She pawed through old files until locating a seemingly innocuous piece of information, then she picked up her phone. After a couple transfers she heard a groggy, "Hello?"

"How are you, Sai?" Joan asked. "You sound tired."

"It's two in the morning here," the boy replied. "We have PT at five."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot about the time difference." Joan smiled sheepishly, not that he could see it. "Are you and your siblings enjoying boot camp?"

"Not really," he grumbled. "Why?"

"I'm working on a way to ensure Mister Morbucks never puts you through something like that again, but first I need your help. There's some information on a personal computer I need you to access."

"Who's computer?" he wondered.

"A former friend of mine. I'm going to give you the network info, all right?"

"Okay…" Sai agreed, curiosity piqued. "What data do I need to extract?"

Joan's smile widened. "Any and all files pertaining to something called 'Project X'. I'd appreciate it very much if you could upload them to my computer at work."

"Okay. I'll do it when I have free time to plug in."

"Thank you, Sai. I hope you're at least learning new things out there." She heard a slight scoff before he hung up. Joan knew he hated her but she also knew he loved a challenge. They were similar in that regard, motivated by the desire to prove others wrong. If Sai actually were her biological child she'd say he inherited her spiteful personality.

* * *

Boot camp was tough on the children and their developing bodies. Three months into it they experienced a growth spurt, aging to nine. By the end of the six-month program they were ten years old. Natt had grown even taller and more muscular but he now suffered constant joint pain, especially in his knees. He rarely complained about it, though, because his instructors reiterated that pain was weakness leaving the body. Mr. Morbucks could not afford for him to be weak. Natt was strong, the strongest person on the planet, and he was still a kid! Everyone expected great things from him.

The physical training may have ended, but the children had another few months of personalized weapons and martial arts instruction. Natt excelled at hand-to-hand combat and Une was right there with him. She had gotten bigger and stronger as well, and took it upon herself to be the best at everything. It wasn't that she wanted to be better than her siblings for the sake of pride; rather, she desired a well-rounded skillset in order to make up for any of their shortcomings. Sai, for instance, was still quite diminutive and couldn't haul an adult in full combat gear off the battlefield. Tvaer was on so many drugs she barely registered her surroundings, wandering right into harm's way unless her handler explicitly told her not to.

Firing a gun for the first time was… weird. It felt clunky in Une's hands, unnecessary. She shot with precision and was the fastest at reloading, disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling any model they gave her, but guns didn't really suit her. Her powers were better for playing a supporting role, hiding allies and misdirecting enemies. Also, she could shoot lasers from her fingertips which kind of made firearms unnecessary. With enough concentrated radiation she could theoretically disintegrate anything, way more damaging than putting a bullet through it.

The instructors took Tvaer off her meds so she'd be fully coherent and not pose a danger to anyone on the firing range. Unfortunately she became so jittery and disoriented from withdrawal that she couldn't hit any of her targets using a pistol, rifle, or even a shotgun, so she got dosed again. Her siblings hated that Tvaer wasn't herself any more. She was like a sleepwalker: unconscious, too easily influenced, and largely unaware of her environment. Her primary handler was a lady named Nicholes and her secondary was a younger man named Spears. Nicholes had to return home for a family emergency so Spears started accompanying Tvaer on her training schedule. No one paid much attention to the change until Natt overheard him as everyone left the range for the day. "It's fine that you're not a great shot," he reassured Tvaer, "you're still a pretty girl."

Normally Natt wouldn't have given the comment a second thought because lots of people called his sister pretty, but coming from Spears it didn't sound like a harmless compliment. He started watching the man, caught gestures that surely would have made Tvaer uncomfortable if she were aware of them. Spears touched her a lot, more than any of the other cadets or instructors; his hands were always on her shoulders to correct her stance. Then he started playing with her hair, offering to braid it instead of Une so she could go to her krav maga class early, tucking strands behind her ears and letting his fingers linger on her cheek milliseconds too long to be innocent. Then there was the way Spears _looked_ at Tvaer, his eyes always dipping down and back up, down and back up her slender frame. Natt knew it was wrong for adults to study children that way, but so many adults had been dismissive of his concerns that he didn't know who he could trust besides his own siblings.

So they took matters into their own hands.

Sai dove into Spears' personal data, trying to locate anything that could be used to implicate him. He wasn't expecting to find a stash of photos featuring nude little girls. He'd never seen something so… _disturbing_. Sai didn't trust most adults because they were liars and manipulators, but meeting Professor Utonium made him hope there were decent people out in the world. These pictures Spears had curated, this _child pornography_ , crushed that hope into oblivion. It made Sai nauseous to think about a man his age being sexually attracted to Tvaer, whose free will had been taken away by psychotropic medication. She was the perfect prey for a predator. She couldn't even say "no" unless Spears told her to.

Natt came up with a plan, a stroke of genius on his part since that was typically Sai's area of expertise, but it would place Tvaer in worse danger if the timing were off. After martial arts practice the siblings always took showers and went to the cafeteria for dinner. Natt, Une, and Sai finished quickly and left, leaving Tvaer alone while Spears waited in the locker section. Une actually stayed behind, invisible among the row of showers with her tablet recording. She'd generated a mirage to make it seem like she exited the room, and as long as she stayed quiet Spears would remain unaware of her presence. She hoped he couldn't hear her heart pounding with anxiety.

The door opened and closed but no one came in; Spears must have checked the hallway. He then stood right outside the curtain shielding Tvaer, saying nothing, which made Une even more anxious. Sai said they had to have irrefutable proof that Spears was a pedophile meaning they had to wait until he put his hands on Tvaer. Une held her breath as he pushed the curtain aside, then bit her trembling lip when he reached out to touch her sister. He made a satisfied sound deep in his throat and tears welled up in Une's eyes. She sort of knew about sex, that it was a biological imperative for reproduction as well as pleasure, but it was supposed to be an act between consenting adults or older adolescents. Tvaer was a ten year-old _child_ incapable of consenting to anything.

This… _couldn't_ be what Joan had designed them for, right? They were supposed to accomplish great things, not be treated like toys. But maybe Sai had been right all along; maybe they only existed to be used by others. Maybe no one had ever intended to let them live their own lives no matter how well Une behaved, how complacent she was.

She almost forgot she was streaming everything to Sai's tablet until he and Natt burst into the locker room. "Get your hands off my sister!" the latter shouted, grabbing a fistful of Spears' shirt and hurling him with such force that a crater formed in the tiled wall. The man's head lolled but he remained coherent enough to see Sai hurriedly wrap a towel around Tvaer and Une flicker into sight, clutching a tablet to her chest. Natt advanced upon him, his veins glowing red-orange and eyes blazing with abject fury. Spears did the only thing he could think of to defend himself against three angry superhumans and drew his pistol, firing three times at Natt's chest.

The first bullet bounced away after leaving a hole in his shirt. The second bullet stung a little as it broke his skin. The third shot embedded itself about halfway into Natt's sternum, freezing him in his tracks as the pain took several seconds to register because it was such a foreign sensation. He fell to his knees, speechless. The entire room was silent except for the _plip plip_ of his blood dripping onto the floor.

Une was the first to find words. "You… shot him. You _shot_ my brother. You shot Natt!" She lifted a hand, palm growing hot as she focused beams of light into it. "And you violated my sister, you… you… _scumbag!_ " The laser missed its mark since her aim was distorted by tears, piercing Spears' right shoulder instead of his heart. He still howled in agony, clutching at the apple-sized hole of cauterized flesh. Une was too distraught to fire off another and rushed to Natt's side while he rolled onto his back, wheezing. Sai left Tvaer to tend their brother as well.

She could only survey the scene through clouded eyes, seeing yet unable to act. The locker room was a maelstrom of emotions she couldn't filter or dampen while under the influence of the medication. Her siblings gasped as the room started to quake. Pipes creaked and groaned, the lights flickered, and cracks appeared in the tiles, fragments tinkling on the floor. Suddenly the fire alarm and sprinklers went off, then the quaking stopped when Tvaer fell unconscious.

* * *

Maximilian arrived at the training complex a little after midnight, his helicopter waking just about everyone who had been asleep. He marched straight into Commander Forsythe's office and slammed the door shut behind him, scowling at the taller distinguished man. "I hope you can explain the absolute clusterfuck that today was."

Forsythe respectfully stood with his hands behind his back and started with the most pressing matter. "Patrick Spears has been arrested for child molestation and for possession of child pornography. We're going to assist the authorities in prosecuting him to the fullest extent of the law."

"I want whoever was in charge of running that piece of shit's background check fired as well." Maximilian took a seat so his blood pressure would no longer be in danger of shooting through the roof. He wasn't exactly a paragon of upstanding morality given his business endeavors, but there was no room for pedophiles in his security force. He and his wife Lucrèce had just decided to try having a baby. If it ended up being a girl, and someone did to her what Spears had done to Tvaer, Maximilian would deign to dirty his hands for once and pull the trigger on whoever hurt his daughter. "How exactly did it come to light that Spears was interested in Tvaer?"

Commander Forsythe returned to the chair at his desk. "Natt began suspecting him according to his siblings. He observed some suspicious contact with his sister, so they plotted to catch Spears in the act. They exposed him perfectly –there's video evidence I doubt you want to see– but then Spears discharged his weapon when the kids confronted him. Poor Natt got shot not once, not twice, but _three_ times right here." The man tapped his manubrium with two fingers. "He's recovering from surgery now. It took a few hours because of his regenerative abilities. By the time the medics got him on a table, new bone tissue had started forming around the bullet. They had to keep grinding it down to get the damn thing out."

Maximilian shook his head incredulously. "Well, now we know it takes at least a forty-five to hurt him. And what about the girl?"

"Tvaer? Sh-she's, uhh…"

"Out with it."

Forsythe sighed. "We decided to… stop medicating her." His gaze tentatively flicked to his employer, who hummed.

"I think that would be for the best," he agreed. If Joan _ever_ found out about what happened today she'd surely come for his head. Maximilian knew she cared about the Quads more than anything else in the world. They were her magnum opus. And they were going to make him filthy rich in the private security sector, so he'd prefer it if they didn't experience further trauma. "Does Tvaer understand what she went through?"

The commander shrugged. "It's hard to say. After the shooting there was a… Well, the word everyone's using is 'phenomenon'."

"Phenomenon?" Maximilian echoed.

"We don't know exactly what occurred since there aren't any cameras in the locker room where everything took place, but based on what Une and Sai told the counselors, Tvaer reacted to her brother being injured. Whatever she did set off the fire alarms and made us aware of the issue with Spears. A few plumbing and electrical systems in that section also spontaneously failed."

Maximilian hummed again. "I thought the medication made it so that Tvaer could only act under orders from her handlers."

"The counselors deduced that seeing Natt get shot was strong enough to trigger some kind of emotional resonance," Forsythe explained. "The general consensus is that the phenomenon was of the psychic variety."

It wasn't their fault that no one at the training compound knew of Tvaer's full capabilities. They were soldiers, not scientists, and didn't care about gathering data on her psionic output. That was Doctor Byers' area of expertise. These people existed to turn bodies into weapons. Other experts would hone her telekinesis. Maximilian hoped her powers would still function correctly without the drugs. "I presume there've been no media leaks," he said in a warning tone.

"None whatsoever." The commander smiled nervously. "Everyone here knows it's your decision when to reveal those kids to the world."

"Well, what do _you_ think? Are they ready for a field test?"

He considered it. "I'd say yes. We'll make sure Tvaer is mentally stable and get Natt back to one-hundred percent, but Une and Sai are ready to go now."

"Excellent." Maximilian shook hands with Commander Forsythe. "I trust you've done a good job shaping them into warriors I can rely on."

"Thank you, Sir. Working with those kids has been the highlight of my career.

"Yes…" Maximilian made for the exit, glancing back over his shoulder. "Shame you'd be forced into early retirement if they were involved in another disgraceful personnel incident."

"I've already begun the vetting process, Sir," Forsythe reassured. "Expect a purge by the end of the week." He still gulped after the door closed; that was the second time his job had been threatened today. Sai beat Maximilian to the punch by blackmailing the commander with a media scandal if they didn't destroy every ounce of Tvaer's medication. He was never, ever going to let anybody make her so vulnerable again.

Sai gladly helped conduct the personnel reviews. Because he could access anything in digital format, the term "private data" meant nothing to him. Firewalls and encryption didn't deter his consciousness. Not only was he the smartest person on the planet, he was also the wealthiest since information was truly the most valuable currency. With the right info he could affect change on a global scale if he so chose. Provide citizens with real evidence to prosecute corrupt members of their governments. Leak classified data to the public, lift the veil of lies. Redistribute money as he saw fit since it was all done electronically. He could erase someone's entire identity, or create a brand-new one. The whole Earth was wired for him.

Sai _did_ want to implement changes the more he learned about injustices being committed the world over, but his immediate concern was finding a way to get himself and his siblings out into that world. He'd mentioned it a few times, making a break for freedom, but Une always said they couldn't just run away. "Why not?" Sai asked. "It's not like anyone can stop us."

"Joan made us," she replied, "she knows what's best for us." And Sai sometimes resented his sister for being so ignorant and blindly loyal to the people manipulating their lives, but Une didn't know the truth of everything like he did. He took steps to enlighten his siblings, one at a time since they couldn't process information like him, and it finally paid off. Sai wished Une hadn't required a front-row view of their sister being molested to realize the only people they could trust were each other. The same dissent Sai had harbored for the last year now brewed within Une, Tvaer, and Natt as well. They were all ready to seize their own destiny.

They just needed time to plan.

* * *

Joan was legitimately startled when Maximilian barged into her laboratory, the slamming door threatening to spill a few precious compounds. His beady green eyes swept over the chemists and bioengineers who had stilled, staring at him like deer caught in headlights. That's essentially what they were since Joan engaged in yet _another_ experiment he hadn't given her permission to run. The tip came from a security guard who said they were dosing the prisoner subjects with suspicious white liquid. Without a word Maximilian strode into Joan's office, sat at her computer, and began clicking through her folders. The most frequently accessed one was titled 'Anti W' and that basically told him everything he needed to know. "Get out," the woman ordered from the doorway. "You're not welcome here."

He snorted. "I'm not welcome in my own facility? That's rich. You should learn to be more hospitable to the person who provided all the equipment you're using."

Joan mirrored his haughty expression. "That's rich, coming from the man who didn't spend a single dollar of his personal fortune building this place. I believe I owe everything to the grants your _wife_ received from the government."

Maximilian stood up to get in her face. "For your information I do personally fund _your_ research. You think the government condones the sort of human testing I let you get away with? You still owe all of this to me." He glanced over her shoulder at the chemistry experiments he'd interrupted. "What do you hope to accomplish by making an antidote for Chemical W?" Joan remained tight-lipped even when he planted a meaty hand on the door frame beside her head. "You want to take away their powers, don't you? You're willing to ruin your greatest accomplishment just to _spite_ me?" Still nothing. "Those children are _my_ property, Miss Newtronium. They belong to me. Accept that fact and stop trying to undermine me."

Now she glared. "They are _not_ your intellectual property. They belong to _me_ … and technically John Utonium. _We_ patented Chemical W. I built them using something I own and their genetic material was available to anyone with proper licensing." Joan drew herself up to her full height, which was not very impressive. The look in her eyes was glacial, though. "You're a liar and a thief. I want the children back here by tomorrow night."

"That's not going to happen." The man lifted his head to look down his nose at her. "You're right, my wife does use government funding to take the strain off our personal investments. But do you know who contributes to the majority of the funding behind most research? _Me_ , and every other billionaire in this country. It's still my money, it just went through a few loopholes to reach you." He sneered. "And did you forget that I can end your career in an instant?"

Joan opened her mouth, closed it, then drew in a shuddering breath. "Why do you want to make them into child soldiers?" she asked in a small voice. "Why hurt them so?"

Maximilian quirked a derisive eyebrow. "On the contrary, their physical and mental well-being is of the utmost importance to me." She glanced up in shock but then immediately scowled at his next words. "Dolls are of no use when they're broken."

"Why do you have to be so despicable?!" Joan yelled. "You really believe your wealth excuses you from acting like a decent human being?!"

"You are in no place to accuse _me_ of acting indecently, Professor. Those children never even set foot outside this lab until I came along. _You_ were holding them prisoner and _I_ gave them freedom. I actually reward them for doing as they're told. They have a better life with me."

She scoffed. "As what, bullet sponges? You're going to send them to the front lines to protect your precious _mercenaries?_ "

"Yes," Maximilian admitted, "because they don't get injured the same way as normal humans. But if you finish that antidote and administer it, there's no telling what will hurt them. For all you know their immune systems are completely dependent on Chemical W. They could die from the common cold!"

Joan grit her teeth. He was right about that. She wasn't even sure if the antidote could be designed to remove all traces of W from the children's genes since it was much more resilient than she thought. The bioengineers had been able to program nanites to attack the mutated protein sequences responsible for their superpowers, but after the nanites dissolved each cell underwent some kind of accelerated regeneration via telomeres repairing the affected chromosomes. Telomerase was the process behind both aging and cancer. Hayflick limits determined how many times cells could divide and after reaching that limit they experienced senescence, leading to a breakdown of bodily functions and inevitable death. Malicious growth occurred when telomerase remained active in certain cells instead of turning off, allowing them to divide without degradation. It had been quite ingenious of John to utilize this inherent biological mechanic to restore Mojo's cognitive functionality.

Maximilian heaved a sigh. "I'll level with you, Professor. You can continue developing Antidote W if you share your findings with me."

"Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked, rightfully suspicious.

"I was just thinking about all the unknown factors surrounding those kids. If they end up proving unstable and become a threat to society instead of a boon, there has to be a way to incapacitate them. You said yourself there's nothing predictable about them." He shrugged. "The day may come when we need to remove their abilities to prevent them from hurting themselves or anyone else."

Joan narrowed her eyes. Maximilian had just admitted he might not be able to maintain control over the children. Maybe if he wasn't planning on forcing them into violent and dangerous situations, he wouldn't have to fear retaliation. But she knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Very well," Joan acquiesced, "I'll continue my work and email you weekly reports."

"Glad we could come to an agreement." One corner of his lips raised in a slight smirk. "By the way, I had some of the Quads' blood samples transferred to the pharmaceutical wing."

"Good," Joan said tersely, "I hope they're able to develop viable medicines." She tried not to dwell on the fact that that had been _her_ goal when she started working for Maximilian.

Things had changed so much, too much, in the span of almost two years. Things were only going to get worse for everyone in the near future.


	5. This is the End of My Night of Fear

Maximilian was just ready and waiting to pounce on an opportunity to show off his new super soldiers to the world, watching the news outlets like a hawk for any sign of impending turmoil. He'd made a few calls to the clients who regularly borrowed his personnel, teasing them with the promise of something that could solve any problem more efficiently than ever before. He already outfitted his private army with excellent equipment, so his clients were curious as to what more Maximilian could offer.

The Quads, meanwhile, continued to train, grow, and hone their unique talents. Age eleven passed in the blink of an eye and suddenly they were twelve years old, preteens, experiencing changes the likes of which no one had prepared them for. Sure, they were given an overview of puberty during biology lessons, but none of their teachers ever went into detail regarding hormonal fluctuations and unexpected bodily developments like boobs and armpit hair.

It was during this tumultuous time that an armed conflict broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo and militants took a few political leaders as hostages, barricading themselves in a decimated town. Whoever wanted the politicians dead had supplied the militants with superior firearms and ample ammunition, allowing them to fend off government forces. Anti-aircraft artillery was also an issue. Maximilian beamed at the news coverage, swirling wine in his glass as one of his private lines rang. "How can I be of assistance?" he asked as an answer.

"Hey, so, how much for that problem-solver you told me about?"

The client paid half the exorbitant fee upfront. Once the payment cleared, Commander Forsythe informed the Quads that they were flying out to the Republic of Congo. "It's a pretty straightforward mission– take out the militants before they kill the hostages. Just like your training simulations." Only this time they loaded up at the armory and got on a plane with five seasoned men and women, mercenaries who weren't shaking in their boots about being sent to fight a battle on foreign soil.

They landed on an airstrip and rode in an armored personnel carrier to the forward operating base, approximately two miles from the combat zone with a strip of thick forest separating the two. The local soldiers could only stare at the four children wearing green and black Clarent mercenary fatigues. Africans were no strangers to the sight of child soldiers but these ones looked different, not just because one of them was the whitest White girl they'd ever seen, but because it didn't seem like they'd been abducted and forced into the role. Why were they here, then?

Parker, the woman who had escorted Une while she took her first steps outside of Joan's laboratory, commanded the operation and determined they should attempt a nighttime rescue. After the sun went down the nine of them hiked through the forest. Sai and Old Man Hamada, as he was referred to among the ranks, broke off to circle around the town where they took up sniping positions. Sai had prodigal talent, able to calculate any and all factors that might throw off his aim and adjust accordingly. His Barrett M82 rifle was significantly lighter than Hamada's customized one, although its weight still made his petite shoulder ache by the time they reached their spot.

Tvaer and Nicholes, her ex-handler, got into position out front of the ruined building the militants and hostages were in. According to local intel it had been an apartment complex, but now it was just a charred and broken shell like the rest of the town. A mere two weeks ago it had been a small yet thriving community. "Enemy report," Nicholes requested of Tvaer.

She had to adjust her earpiece since it kept falling below her chin. "I sense fifty hostiles… no, forty-five. The three hostages are on the highest floor, room number… one-twenty, I think." She blinked at Nicholes who gave her an encouraging smile. "They've lost all hope of being rescued. They're… resigned to death." It was a feeling she'd never encountered before, requiring a moment to articulate it.

"The only people dying here today are the assholes who kidnapped them," Parker said over the comms, nodding at Une and Natt. "Let's go, you two." The three of them vanished beneath Une's cloak while the last two soldiers, Raines and Vasquez, covered the remaining sides of the building.

Everything went fine for Une, Natt, and Parker until they arrived on the third story where most of the militants had taken up residence. There were guards at the end of every hallway, and although the trio couldn't be seen they could still be heard and touched. As they rounded a corner, Une gasped when she almost bumped right into a soldier. The man lifted his weapon but Parker shot him in the head with her silenced pistol, catching his body and dragging it into an empty room so as not to alarm any others. She gave Une a nod to continue but the girl was now quivering. Her anxiety became Tvaer's anxiety which she inadvertently channeled into their brothers. Establishing an emotional link with them was something that had become second nature whenever they were in proximity.

"Got the jitters?" Hamada inquired of Sai as his weapon rattled slightly. "Don't worry, they probably won't even need us." The boy gave a noncommittal grunt, scanning the windows through his scope. He relaxed when he saw the shimmer of Une's camouflage climbing another set of stairs.

They made it to room 120 without having to remove any more hostiles. "Wait," Tvaer spoke as Parker reached for the doorknob, "someone's coming out. Back up!" Her siblings tensed, pressing themselves against the wall while one of the abductors strode down the hall. "There are three more in there. Hostiles, I mean, plus the three hostages."

Parker considered that information. "Stay here," she whispered to the kids, sneaking off to take out the lone militant. She returned shortly. "What do you recommend, Tvaer?"

Silence for a beat. "That man was on guard, but the rest are asleep. Maybe you can… get the bad guys before they wake up."

Natt glanced down at his thigh holster. "Une and I don't have silencers. If we discharge our weapons, we'll alert everyone else."

Parker eyed them both. "You two don't _need_ weapons to take those guys out. Just use your hands."

"Wh-what?" he stuttered.

"You know…" She pantomimed snapping a neck. "Easy, right?"

Une stared at her palms. "I guess… I can use a laser. But it takes time to focus."

"So Natt and I will wait for you to charge up, and when you're ready we'll take out our targets at the same time. Coordinated effort. No one will hear us that way." Parker wrapped her fingers around the handle and turned it slowly, pushing the door inward. Thankfully the hinges didn't squeak. The room had been cleared out except for two beds and a couple mattresses. The politicians were all bound together on one, their breathing ragged. It wasn't a stretch to assume they were starving and dehydrated. Parker skirted them to aim her pistol at the head of the man on the far side of the room. Natt went to the middle, flexing his gloved hands. Une closed her eyes and began gathering energy in her fingertip. Once her digit glowed, she took a deep breath and nodded at Parker. The woman held up her free hand and counted down with her own fingers.

Three, two, one.

The slight discharge from the silencer was enough to rouse one of the hostages, who glanced up in time to see a beam of light lance through his captor's temple. "What was that? Who are you?"

"We're getting you out of here," Parker answered, drawing her knife to cut their ropes. Now all three men sat blinking blearily at the mercenaries. "Come on, up and at 'em." She hauled one to his feet and slung his arm around her shoulders to carry most of his weight. The other two captives were more astounded than indignant when they found themselves being easily hefted by preteens.

"Who _are_ you people? Are these _children?_ "

"You can ask questions after we get you to safety," Parker said, taking point as they left the room. "Until then, we need the three of you to stay quiet. We'll be spotted otherwise." They made little sounds of agreement. "Ready, Une?" The girl nodded and they began their descent.

With help from Tvaer, they avoided soldiers on patrol and made it all the way down to the lobby before a cry went up. "The hostages are gone!" Floodlights instantly came on, bathing the perimeter of the building in blinding luminescence.

"Move, move!" Nicholes shouted through her headset. She peered around the concrete barricade shielding her and Tvaer. Beneath the intense beams of the floodlights she discerned the shimmering outline of Une's cloak, and if she could see it, so could their enemies.

Bullets rained down upon the area as militants fired from all four stories of the building. Thanks to her lapse in concentration, Une's invisibility flickered off and left the six of them exposed, but she, Natt, and Parker ran as fast as their legs could carry them and darted behind the hull of a bus. "Shit!" Parker spat. "Vasquez, Raines, we could use your help over here!"

"Movin'!" They appeared at the front corners of the building and joined Nicholes in providing return fire as Parker plotted a course to the forest where they'd be safe, presuming the militants didn't pursue them.

"Une, we need your cloak again. I know this is a scary situation, literally the worst-case scenario, but we have to get these men out of here or else this country will go to war."

The girl's eyes were wide with fear, but she nodded. "I can do it."

"Okay. Natt, cover our asses. You, sir, come with me." Parker wrapped her arms around both men while Natt readied his SCAR, his jaw clenched and pulse pounding in his ears. Courtesy of Spears he now knew he was not bulletproof, but he was willing to draw attention to himself if it meant his sister could escape unharmed. Once Une, Parker, and the three men disappeared from sight, Natt moved to the other end of the bus and fired a short burst at the windows along the first floor. Whether he killed more people or even hit anyone, he didn't know.

Tvaer's voice suddenly rang out in his mind. _"Aim for the lights!"_ Natt raised the barrel of his battle rifle to shoot a bulb, but it shattered before he could squeeze the trigger. Nine more lights went dark in just a few seconds, each preceded by the resounding report of a sniper rifle.

"Way to go, kiddo!" Hamada gave Sai a pat on the back for his remarkable speed and precision. The boy only blew out a breath as he reloaded. There was no time to receive praise when his siblings were in the middle of a firefight.

Now that the front of the apartment complex was dark, Nicholes, Raines, and Vasquez moved into better positions. Some of the hostiles they shot fell from their perches to land glassy-eyed on the ground. Tvaer couldn't look at the scene, couldn't move out from behind her chunk of cement, could barely sense her siblings among the absolute chaos that was her psyche right now. Anger, outrage, hatred, determination, fear, and desperation left her paralyzed by the onslaught of so many conflicting emotions. Even if she _were_ able to move, her little Sig wouldn't be much help against such superior numbers.

But maybe… the odds were in their favor. Every fifty-caliber bullet fired from Hamada and Sai's rifles found a target, eviscerating human flesh and painting the inside of the building with gruesome graffiti. Nicholes, Raines, and Vasquez were skilled marksmen as well, moving methodically along the face of the complex while concentrating their fire on one floor at a time. And then there was Natt making his mid-range assault, willing to take a bullet now just as he had from Spears in order to protect Tvaer. Sai was fine, hidden away in the trees, but Natt was there in the thick of it and Parker had just informed everyone that she and Une had reached the forest so it was time to fall back. Their mission was a success.

As the three adults began retreating from the combat zone, Natt tried moving to Tvaer's position to leave with her. They were about three feet from each other when Natt shifted a few inches too far past his cover. He didn't see the little green dot that appeared on his knee, but Tvaer did. Before she could even form the thought for him to get back, a bullet came flying through the air with a strange whistling sound and blew his lower leg off.

Tvaer had never seen so much blood. She had no idea her brother was even capable of gushing so much blood. His right limb no longer existed from the thigh down, and there was some whitish liquid mixed in with the red, almost like quicksilver. Tvaer reached for Natt, who lay unmoving. When her hand landed on his chest she was only mildly relieved that he was still breathing; he wouldn't be for much longer if he bled out. Each rapid beat of his heart sent his life force through a severed femoral artery.

"Natt… Natt…" she whispered, placing one hand on his forehead and the other over his wound. "Hold on, I'll help you. Just keep breathing. Don't—"

 _"Sis…"_ came his voice in her head. It was weak, fading. _"It hurts. I don't think…"_

Tears flooded her eyes as the pain he felt made its way to her, wracking her small body and throwing off her focus as she tried to telekinetically staunch his wound. It worked, and no more blood joined the crimson pool gathered beneath them, but he'd lost so much already. His pulse was slowing, his eyes struggled to stay open, his breathing grew shallow. "Natt, come on, stay awake!" Tvaer patted his cheek but he groaned in defeat, surrendering to his fate. "No, _no!_ Help! Someone, help!" To her siblings she said, _"Natt's dying!"_

Footsteps approached from the direction of the apartment complex, the militants cautiously making their way outside to where they heard a girl screaming. "Did I hit him?" a gruff voice asked. Tvaer looked up at the sleek, futuristic rifle in the man's hands. A brief plunge into his mind informed her that he had fired the bullet that killed her brother, but it wasn't any kind of weapon she'd ever seen or heard of. The ammunition was called Dow, like the stock market index. Tvaer's silver eyes narrowed as the man pointed the barrel of the gun at her.

He never got the chance to pull the trigger. The weapon crumpled in his hands, and then _he_ crumpled, every bone in his body fracturing into hundreds of pieces beneath the psychic pressure Tvaer exuded in her grief. It spread outward in all directions, flattening the ground and pulverizing objects into dust. It reached the building, the agonized screams of its remaining occupants unheard by Tvaer as they were crushed by the weight of her psionic wave, brains and bodies rupturing alike. The girl began sobbing, taking no notice of how eerily silent her surroundings had become.

* * *

Natt awoke in the infirmary at the Colorado training center with a dull ache in his leg and a sharp pain in his arm. He examined the former first, raising his head with a gasp. His limb was not entirely there, but it looked like it was trying to be. Some kind of plastic box had been placed around the leg as it regenerated. It was weird, seeing the inner workings of his own body like that, but at least he was alive. He was almost positive he'd died in the Congo. The last thing he heard was a wail from Tvaer and then darkness claimed his senses.

He studied his arm next. He found a needle sticking out of his vein connected to a tube that reached across to another bed where Une lay with her eyes closed, a matching needle in her arm. Some viscous white liquid had been smeared around both entry sites. "Une?" Natt inquired softly. "You awake?" She didn't budge; donating her blood to him probably took a lot of energy. "Thanks," he said anyway, and tried getting comfortable. He fell back asleep since regenerating major body parts required even more energy than sharing blood.

Over in the barracks, Sai and Tvaer searched for any information on the weird weapon that had almost killed Natt. It was the bullet they were more interested in, the details of which Tvaer relayed to her brother with perfect clarity as if he'd seen it himself. That was one of her favorite things about being telepathic. Sai returned from his deep dive into the internet, eyebrows knitting. "Dow is apparently some new drug that's being sold on the black market."

 _"A drug?"_ Tvaer repeated. _"A drug couldn't hurt Natt like that."_

"Right. Either its effects aren't fully known, or…"

_"Or?"_

"Or its designation as a drug is covering up its true purpose." Which was for use as a weapon against superhumans made from Chemical W. Intuition told Sai that he and his siblings had just returned from a combat mission only to enter another, more dangerous battle. He stopped talking out loud in case someone somewhere was listening. _"Remember when I said we should run away from Joan, Morbucks, and everyone else trying to control our lives?"_ Tvaer nodded. _"It's not wishful thinking or a fanciful notion. We have to leave. We need to get away from these people."_

 _"Where will we go?"_ she asked.

 _"Anywhere, just as long as it isn't here or back to Townsville. Africa might be off the table as well."_ After they returned to the States, footage from their body cameras started popping up on the deep web. Now anyone who was interested could see what the youngest members of Clarent were capable of, and anyone who was interested could pay Maximilian's price to rent them. Sai was not going to sit around and let that happen. He and his siblings were not products for consumption, and if there was some mysterious compound out there that could severely injure or even kill them, he sure as hell wasn't going to die fighting someone else's war.

 _"Asia?"_ Tvaer suggested. _"How about Japan?"_

 _"Une and Natt would stand out too much there."_ Sai mulled it over. _"Europe would probably be best, maybe France."_

_"Would we buy a house?"_

_"No, we can't do anything that'll leave records they can trace."_

_"A hotel suite?"_ Sai nodded. _"I'll look for some."_

Well, good to know that Tvaer was as on-board with the idea of getting the hell out of dodge as him. Why wouldn't she be after all she'd endured? Une and Sai were sort of… _detached_ from the actions they'd taken in the Congo. Une killed that one soldier in order to save some innocent men. In her opinion, having superpowers meant she was obligated to use them to help people. Sai had no qualms whatsoever about killing people who were trying to kill his siblings. Tvaer… didn't talk about it at all. She couldn't convey how it felt to sense death, to be in contact with so many minds only to feel them wink out of existence or fade to nothingness depending how quickly they died. And although she _could_ transfer the sensation of Natt bleeding out and how powerless she'd been to save him, she wanted to spare Une and Sai that experience.

During the two days it took for Natt to recover, some investigative agencies began looking into the circumstances around the rescue of the Congo politicians. Maximilian revelled in the free publicity; people were asking questions about the heroic children whose brave actions had averted a war. They mostly focused on Une since her outward appearance alluded to being superhuman more than the other Quads. She had aqua hair and bright purple eyes, a living, breathing weapon with innocuous candy-colored features. People wanted to know about Natt, too, because he was physically imposing and moved like any well-trained soldier with only a fraction of the time invested.

Sai knew they had to leave soon. Maximilian was going to display them to the whole world and doubtless that Dow stuff would be used to make them comply. Natt was indestructible and its effect had been devastating on him; there was no telling what it would do to his siblings. They managed to put the finishing touches on their plan to escape, sharing all the details with each other through Tvaer. The biggest issue was figuring out how to financially support themselves. They were too young to work, and they didn't want to indebt themselves to any sort of patron. Sai thought about pulling funds directly from Maximilian's account, but he'd be able to trace it and track them down. But maybe if it went through a few loopholes first, a grant to a foundation to a charity to a fund that was vague enough not to raise any eyebrows. Sai named it ACT– Atypical Children's Trust. Maximilian generously donated one million dollars to get it started. Or rather, his wife did since her name was on the account.

With that much money they could pay to stay for several months or even years in a nice hotel suite. Best not to remain in one location for too long, though. They would go to Paris first and come up with a more long-term plan. Identifications and such would be easy to falsify since Sai could access the databases. All they really needed right off the bat were food and clothes.

Once Natt's leg had regrown and he got done with a round of forced physical therapy, the four preteens squirreled away some supplies for their journey. Sai bought train tickets to Chicago, then to New York where they'd stay just long enough to acquire passports, then they'd take a cruise to France. It'd be easier to jump ship than out of a plane if anyone came after them. They were going to leave on Sunday when the compound was minimally staffed, sneaking away under the veil of night. Une would be able to project disguises as long as they remained close to each other, and hopefully the average passerby would assume they were just kids on an educational school trip or something. Or better yet, they could pretend to be exchange students.

The Friday before they were slated to leave, Maximilian did something unpredictable and flew them on his private jet back to Townsville. The Quads said nothing, expressing no hint of their frustration even when they returned to Joan's laboratory. She beamed and several other scientists appeared thrilled by their impromptu arrival. "You've gotten so big!" Joan exclaimed, trying and failing to hug them all at once. "I can't believe how much you've grown! Tell me about what you've been up to!"

Sai rolled his eyes. "Don't pretend like you care about us."

Her smile fell away. "Of course I do. I _made_ you."

"So you could use us, and let other people use us," he said with the utmost disdain. "We're not clueless little kids any more."

"No, you're not. Clearly." Joan's cold appraisal made Natt shrink back and Tvaer shiver. "I don't suppose you'll let us see just much you've changed? Measure your power output?"

"What, for old time's sake?" Une raised her chin and met the woman's gaze with steel in her own. "No." No, no one would ever poke and prod them like lab rats again.

Joan merely lifted her brow and turned away. "I never thought your loyalties would lie with Maximilian, not after that horrible situation he put you in. I knew you would come out unharmed, physically at least, but I can't believe it didn't take a toll on your mental state. If you want to talk to someone, the counselors are still here."

"You… knew about our mission?" Natt queried.

"Indeed." Joan rotated to give his right leg a prolonged look. "I'm disappointed you won't let me study your regenerative abilities. Think of all the people you could help if we synthesized cures from fresh blood samples."

Sai opened his mouth to say something nasty, but Tvaer stopped him. _"We're not safe here. Joan made Dow!"_

 _"No way!"_ Natt exclaimed.

 _"Are you serious?"_ Une pressed.

_"Yes! She made it to take away our powers so Mister Morbucks wouldn't want us!"_

Sai paled. That was why Joan had him steal Professor Utonium's research regarding Project X. How could he be so _stupid_ not to realize that?! _"Then why did he send us back to her lab?"_

Tvaer didn't have the exact answer to that, but Joan did. She could tell by their expressions and bodily tension that they were having a clandestine conversation. "Maximilian's assets are being investigated by several government agencies. They're concerned to learn about the child soldiers among his mercenary ranks. But you're safe here, they won't find you. There's no trace of you in existence, after all."

Not yet there wasn't.

* * *

The federal agents looking to take down at least one of Maximilian Morbucks' shady businesses persisted in their investigation of the genetically enhanced soldiers they suspected he employed. The American government was not going to ignore the issue, not when such soldiers and the means to create them would be a great boon to national security. And, of course, to war profiteers. The agents questioned Patrick Spears in his prison cell, and because he had nothing to lose he told them everything about the Quads. Another inmate stabbed him to death a few days later. They kept pressuring Morbucks until he finally cracked, throwing Joan under the bus. _She_ was the one they wanted, the genetic engineer who made the world's first superheroes.

Joan defended herself during the investigation, dragging it out for an entire month. She surrendered most of her research while maintaining the lie that her experiments had been a failure and the children she augmented with Chemical W hadn't survived. The soldiers from that footage in the Congo were different children, orphans who had been dosed with W and died not long after their field test. Yes, experimenting on humans was unethical, but no one was going to miss a handful of kids nobody wanted in the first place, right?

After the feds concluded their investigation, leaving Maximilian with a hefty fine for child endangerment, he and Joan thought they were in the clear. The facility in Townsville remained a secret, absent from public records due to the Morbucks outsourcing the engineers, builders, and materials; according to the city, it was a warehouse and nothing more. While trapped in the lab, Sai learned everything about Antidote W and only hated himself that much more for helping to create it. Dow was out there in the world now, being sold in narcotic and weaponized forms. When injected as a cold liquid, it blew people's minds. When reaching a certain temperature and velocity, it blew people's brains out with disturbing corrosive effects. It had been invented to cripple Sai and his siblings, but of course Maximilian found a way to profit off hurting regular humans because he was a bastard.

Joan assumed that was the end of things. She was wrong. John Utonium contacted Townsville's Scientific Discovery Council with everything he knew about her work; he and his ex-colleague were summoned to a hearing. John knew he might very well lose all credibility for being affiliated with Joan, but he couldn't let her continue her mad experiments. She didn't stop directing a glare of seething hatred at him as they sat at their tables divided by an aisle. "Where are the children referred to as 'the Quadruplets' now, Professor Newtronium?" the elderly woman leading her council of peers questioned. "We know they exist. You and your patron may have been able to misdirect the government, but we know exactly what you're capable of."

"They're… hidden," Joan replied.

"Well, I suggest you reveal them to this chamber tomorrow so we can determine how severely you crossed the line."

The Quads were escorted to Town Hall early in the morning. When they entered the SDC chamber, all the scientists in attendance began murmuring with intrigue. Tvaer locked onto the one psyche who was genuinely happy to see that they were alive and well, flashing John a hint of a smile. He always regarded them as real people instead of tools.

"Please stand before us, if you will," a council member instructed. The Quads stopped a few feet from their tables, Une and Natt fidgeting beneath their intense states. "Can you state your names for us?"

"Une."

"Tvaer."

"N-Natt."

"…Sai."

The elderly woman flipped through her copies of Joan's research. "You apparently came into existence during… June of last year, correct?"

Sai shrugged. "If you say so. We had no sense of time at first."

"About how old are you now?"

"We're equivalent to twelve years old," Tvaer answered.

The woman hummed. "Your accelerated rate of growth is astounding." She looked to Joan. "Is that an effect of the Chemical W, Professor?"

"Yes," she tersely replied. "I would have been able to measure their growth rate and predict additional spurts if not for Morbucks' intervention of my study."

Sai twisted to scowl at her. " _You're_ the one who sold us out to him. It's your own damn fault."

"Please, we don't like to use vulgar language in this room." Sai scoffed at the admonishment from a man who was practically a fossil.

A pretty Grecian woman smiled kindly at Une. "In her notes, Professor Newtronium states that you have the ability to manipulate light. Photokinesis is the word she uses. Could you demonstrate that for us?"

"Um, okay…" Une glanced at her siblings before turning invisible, prompting a fresh round of excited murmuring.

The woman grinned. "Amazing!"

"It's not _amazing_ , Doctor Vesper," her neighbor chided, "it's horrifying. This girl could go around assassinating the leaders of our country without being seen!"

Une's eyes widened. "I would _never_ do that!"

"And after you killed them you could impersonate them, couldn't you? You also have the power to project illusions and alter your appearance, don't you?"

"Evidently she can also generate laser beams," someone added.

The man stood, pointing an accusatory finger at Une. "This girl is a _weapon_ , a danger to society!" She appeared stricken by the condemnation in his tone. "Look at these notes– they _all_ pose a danger to humanity! A psychic girl proven to possess telepathy and telekinesis. She's probably in all of our heads right now. We can't even protect our own thoughts from her!" Tvaer frowned. She didn't need to read their minds to know they were afraid. "And this one, he's indestructible! Meaning he couldn't be stopped by anything or anyone if he decided to go on a rampage!"

"That's untrue," Joan cut in, "he can be stopped by Antidote W."

The man was too riled up to hear her. "And then there's _this_ one who can connect his _consciousness_ to the _internet_ and manipulate _data_ however he sees fit. You're all going to sit there and tell me this _child_ deserves that kind of power? He could undo the fabric of modern society! He could implement anarchy on a global scale!"

Sai smirked. "Yeah, I _could_ do that if I wanted." The room quieted. "But that's not what I want. That's not what _we_ want."

The elderly woman peered at him from beyond her glasses. "Then what _do_ the four of you want?"

"To live." His golden eyes narrowed to slits. "No one told _you_ what to do with your lives, did they? Or if they did, then it was your choice to obey. We obeyed Joan and Morbucks because we didn't know any better. They wanted us to be ignorant of everything, but we overcame the limitations they placed on us. Because we're superhuman– that means above, better, _more_. We want to do more with our lives than what Joan created us for."

She nodded slowly, shifting her gaze to the woman in question. "And for what purpose did you create these beings, Professor?"

"They were supposed to help people," Joan spoke in a neutral tone. "They're genetically pure, they can't get sick. I was going to derive cures from them to heal the world."

"As noble as your intentions sound, we can't ignore the facts." The Fossil counted on his fingers. "You betrayed your colleague and essentially corrupted his half of your research. You stole material from a genealogy bank. You failed to maintain transparency with your benefactor. You engaged in unethical experiments on human subjects without receiving approval from this council. You created children and dehumanized them to the point where I can't even begin to rationalize your thought process." Joan sat in stoic silence. "For the unprecedented loss of your morals and the gross violation of our ethical code, Professor Joan Newtronium, you are hereby stripped of your SDC membership and may no longer be employed within the state of California."

Joan expected to lose her standing within the SDC. She was _not_ expecting the graduate university she had attended with John to contact her a few days later to say they were rescinding her PhD. She could go to a tribunal to fight their decision and attempt to convince other experts in the field of genetic engineering that her actions didn't reflect poorly on their profession, but Joan knew it was a battle she wouldn't win. There was no more denying the selfishness of her actions. Everyone could see that she valued making a name for herself more than contributing to the advancement of humankind. She always had, and she always would.

John almost regretted ruining Joan's career, possibly her entire life, but he looked at the children she had created, the world's first superhumans, and knew he'd done the right thing. They never should have been made, but they existed now. There were many opinions among the members of the SDC as to what should be done about the Quads; for the time being they had been secured in an undisclosed location. John went to the meeting to determine their fate.

"There's no need for a discussion. Those children are biological weapons who pose a threat to humanity," someone asserted as he walked in.

"I think something needs to be said for the fact that they've maintained control over their powers in the midst of puberty. My own kid was an emotional roller coaster at that time."

"How do we know their abilities won't develop further as they get older?"

"It's likely they will. Did you even bother reading Newtronium's research? She included predictions after sequencing their genomes."

A few people greeted John as he slid into a seat. "Right, and their genomes reveal they aren't entirely human. So they're not entitled to the same rights as human beings."

"I disagree with you. They're human enough. They might not look like ordinary people, but those are just chromosomal anomalies. Hell, you could even attribute their unusual eye colors to melanin mutations."

"Doctor, it's their _insides_ that concern me. You heard what that kid said– he could plunge the world into chaos on a whim!"

"That's not what he wants, though. Maybe Maximilian Morbucks sought to turn them into weapons, but that's not their purpose."

"You're willing to accept the word of a twelve year-old at face value? Are you dense?"

"I have a Master's in child psychology, in case you didn't know. Those kids are at the age where they're trying to establish independence and individual identities. They want the basic right bestowed upon every human being by virtue of simply being alive– freedom. If you would deny them, then you're no better than Newtronium."

"Those children are _weapons of mass destruction_ , Doctor Vesper! You're ignoring their nature _and_ the way they've been nurtured in order to uphold some utopian concept that doesn't exist in the modern world!"

"So you would rather destroy what you refuse to understand. Typical entitled male." The man sputtered at Doctor Jill Vesper, who faced John. "What are your thoughts on this matter, Professor Utonium?"

Many eyes focused on him. "I believe they deserve a chance at life," he answered.

"You're biased because you helped create Chemical W!"

"Your baseless accusations are giving me a headache, Doctor Marsh. Kindly be quiet and let someone else speak."

John considered his next words. "I understand that many of you fear Professor Newtronium's creations because you don't understand why. _Why_ did she augment the human genome with Chemical W, really? Only Joan knows the true answer to that question. We can speculate all we want– she's crazy, she lost her moral compass, she had something to prove, she really did want to help change the world… It doesn't matter now. Those four children are separate entities from her. They were made, they're alive, but they don't harbor the desire to treat people the way they've been treated even though they have every right to and it'd be easy for them. They _could_ hurt others, cause mass murder and global chaos and all the things you mentioned, but vengeance isn't coded into their genes. They just want the chance to live like normal kids. That's all they're asking for."

A beat of silence followed his unintentional monologue. "Who's to say they won't grow into resentful adults that want to watch the world burn?" the Fossil broached.

"Well, this world is the only one they have, just like the rest of us. We're all stuck here together whether we like it or not," John replied.

Doctor Vesper nodded in agreement. "Just so you know, out voting choices are either 'euthanize the children' or 'confine the children to protective custody'."

John frowned. He certainly wasn't going to vote for the first option. After "protective custody" ended up being the action the SDC would take, John returned home with a bittersweet taste in his mouth. It was inhumane to keep the children locked up. They had changed hands several times, but wherever they went and whoever looked after them, they weren't allowed to make their own decisions. It just… felt so _wrong_. He wasn't a parent so he didn't know what it was like to be in that role, but he always thought if he _did_ have kids someday, biologically or via adoption, he'd be honest with them no matter what. And he wouldn't talk down to them. And he'd encourage them to ask questions about everything because knowledge was the greatest cure for fear and ignorance.

Bittersweet was also the flavor of guilt. He should have gone to the SDC as soon as Joan told him about the Quads; he could have spared them so much hurt if he'd done the right thing at the right time. Now it was his fault that those children were basically imprisoned until further notice, watched over by guards armed with terrible Antidote W weapons. He hated Joan for betraying him, he hated Maximilian for being greedy enough to profit off innocent kids, and he was disappointed in himself for not stepping up to either of them.

John went to bed around one in the morning, tossing and turning, but it was thanks to his fitful sleep that he heard a light _tap tap_ on the front door. He lay still for a moment, thinking it was a lingering remnant of a dream, but then a louder knock came at the door. He put on his bathrobe and glanced at the clock. 2:15. Who could be visiting him so late? If it were a burglar they wouldn't have the courtesy to knock. He looked through the peephole and promptly yanked the door open.

"Can I use your wifi?" Sai asked.

"Y-you…" John gawked at the Quads on his doorstep. "What are you doing here?!"

 _"We feel we can trust you, Professor Utonium."_ Tvaer smiled along with her unspoken words.

"Wh-why me?"

"Because you've always wanted for us what we want for ourselves," Une explained. "Can we trust you not to tell anyone that you helped us leave the country?"

"Leave the country?" he echoed. "Where are you planning to go?"

"France," Sai said. "We were going to take a train to the east coast from Denver, but we can still get there from here. I just need to use your wifi to buy new tickets." John nodded slowly and stepped aside.

"Your house is warm," Natt commented. The ceilings were high enough that he could raise his arms and not touch them. That was a first.

John ushered them into the living room where Sai and Tvaer sat beside each other on the sofa as Une and Natt remained standing. He watched in confusion and fascination as Sai closed his eyes and his head dropped back, seemingly falling into a deep sleep. "He's online now?" John guessed.

"Mhm."

"How did you get out from wherever you were?" he wondered.

"Sai put the security feeds to our rooms on a loop, then we went through the ventilation system to the roof," Une explained, giggling. "It was fun!"

Natt pouted. "I almost got stuck."

"It was fun and _funny_ ," she amended.

John's lips quirked. They really were just kids. "Do you have money for your trip, for food and such?"

Une started to answer in the affirmative yet faltered. "We _had_ bags with that stuff back at the training camp, but Mister Morbucks sent us here. They've probably found everything by now and realized what we were planning."

Sai inhaled sharply just then, signifying his return to consciousness. "Doesn't matter. We're never going to see his ugly face again." He fixed his golden eyes on John. "Thanks for your help, Professor."

"You're welcome." They stood and headed for the exit, John trailing. "If you'd like to stock up on a few things, Malph's is north of this neighborhood and is open twenty-four seven."

Une nodded. "We'll check it out. Good night, Professor. Sorry to barge in on you."

He waved it off, watching them walk down the street until they vanished around the corner. John couldn't help but grin as he closed the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you made it to this point, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy the rest of the series!


End file.
